Frequently asked questions

Gallus French is a French learning app that teaches through short, level-appropriate illustrated stories. Instead of drilling isolated flashcards, you read real French sentences with native audio, tap any word to see its meaning, its gender and the nuance it carries in that sentence, then review what you have seen with a spaced-repetition system (SRS) tuned to how you actually performed.

Flashcards teach you a word in exactly one context: the card. Reading teaches you the word plus the preposition it takes, the gender it carries, the register it belongs to and the rhythm of the sentence around it - all at once, and all attached to a story you remember. That is comprehensible input: you acquire language by understanding messages slightly above your current level. Gallus still uses an SRS, but as a safety net for what the stories introduce, not as the main course.

The full CEFR range, A1 (absolute beginner) through C1 (proficient), split into 61 numbered levels covering 424 grammar points. Roughly 500 words of active vocabulary at A1 up to 6,000+ at C1. Each level has its own library of stories, with grammar and vocabulary that grow one step at a time.

CEFR is the Common European Framework of Reference, the same scale the DELF and DALF exams use. A1: introduce yourself, order, ask directions. A2: handle daily routines and talk about the past - the level asked for a first multi-year French residence permit. B1: give opinions and tell a story - the level asked for the 10-year carte de résident. B2: debate, handle nuance and the subjunctive - what French universities ask for, and since 1 January 2026 what naturalisation asks for too (it used to be B1). C1: read literature and the press at natural speed, and catch irony and implication.

The US Foreign Service Institute classifies French as a Category I language for English speakers and budgets 600–750 hours of study to reach professional working proficiency, roughly B2/C1. That is the honest number: at one focused hour a day it is around two years, at 20 minutes a day considerably longer. French is one of the fastest major languages for an English speaker precisely because so much of the vocabulary is already familiar - Japanese, by comparison, is budgeted at 2,200 hours.

Yes, indirectly. The curriculum is built on the CEFR descriptors the exams are graded against, so working through the B1 levels puts you on the ground the DELF B1 covers. Gallus is not an exam-cram product though: there are no timed mock papers. It builds the reading and listening comprehension that the exams test, and you should still do past papers before sitting one.

French has nothing like furigana, but it has a related problem: written French and spoken French look like two different languages once liaisons and silent endings get involved. So every story ships with native audio, and tapping a word shows you its pronunciation alongside its meaning and its role in that sentence. Read and listen together and the gap closes much faster than reading alone.

Every word and sentence you encounter is scheduled for future review. Cards you recall easily come back less often; cards you struggle with come back sooner. Because the material comes out of stories you have already read, reviews are anchored to a context instead of floating free. Reviews sync across your devices, so you can study on your phone in the morning and pick up where you left off on another device later.

Yes. Once a story is downloaded, you can read, listen and review it without an internet connection. Progress syncs the next time you go online.

Gallus French is still in development and is not yet on the App Store or Google Play. There is no beta build to install today. Leave your e-mail on the home page and we will write once, on launch day - no newsletter, no drip campaign.

The plan is for the core learning experience - the full A1→C1 curriculum, SRS reviews, native audio and tap-to-translate - to be free, with an optional subscription for readers who want to go past the free daily allowance and download whole story packs offline. Final pricing will be shown in the app before you ever subscribe, in your local currency, and we would rather commit to nothing than publish a number we then have to change.

Through the App Store and Google Play, like any other app: billing on your Apple ID or Google account, auto-renewal that you can switch off from your account settings at any time, and cancellation taking effect at the end of the current billing period. Deleting an app never cancels its subscription - you have to turn it off on the store side.

Once the app is live, refunds will be handled by Apple or Google under their respective policies: reportaproblem.apple.com on iOS, and your order history on Google Play. If you get stuck, email get@gallus-french.com and we will do what we can to help from our side.

Yes. When you are signed in, your learning history, bookmarks and SRS schedule sync across all of your devices.

The interface and all translations are available in English, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. There is deliberately no French interface: French is the language being taught, and explanations only help if they are in a language you already read comfortably.

No accounts exist yet, since the app has not launched. Once it has, you will be able to delete your account from the app settings, or email get@gallus-french.com from the address associated with your account. Deletion removes your personal information from our active systems; residual copies in backups are purged within 30 days. Full details are on our Delete account page.

The Service is not directed to children under 13. The stories are written for adults - work, travel, relationships, the news - rather than for a classroom. Users between 13 and the age of majority should have a parent or guardian review and agree to our Terms. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Gallus French is built by Shinobi LLC, the team behind Shinobi Japanese. We are a small group of language learners and engineers who believe in comprehensible input and short daily sessions. The curriculum follows the CEFR: 61 levels and 424 grammar points, ordered so each one unlocks the next.

Email get@gallus-french.com. A real human will reply, typically within one business day.