You do not need to relearn French. You need to stop the few mistakes you keep making.
If you speak French well but your writing is full of small errors, the way to improve French spelling is not to read more rules. It is to find the handful of mistakes you repeat, fix them one at a time, and check that they stay fixed.
This guide gives a method for adults: how to spot your own patterns, which rules cover most mistakes, and how to practise with short dictations.
Spoken French hides a lot of its spelling. Many final letters are silent, several endings sound the same, and short words that mean different things are pronounced alike. Your ear, which helps so much when you speak, cannot tell you whether to write a or à, -é or -er, mange or mangent.
That is why fluent speakers, French natives included, still make spelling mistakes. The good news is that these mistakes are not random: each person repeats a small set of them.
Gather ten or twenty things you wrote recently: emails, messages, notes. Mark the mistakes, with a teacher, a checker or a careful reread, then sort them by type. Most people find that a few types account for most of their errors.
| Type of mistake | Example | Rule to learn |
|---|---|---|
| homophones | il à mangé, for il a mangé | a or à |
| past participle agreement | les lettres que j'ai envoyé, for envoyées | agreement with avoir |
| -é or -er | il faut mangé, for manger | -er infinitive or -é participle |
| plural and verb agreement | les enfant joue, for les enfants jouent | subject-verb agreement |
| accents | a la maison, for à la maison | French accents |
Take your most frequent type of mistake and learn that one rule first, with its test. For a or à, replace with avait: if the sentence still works, write a. For -é or -er, replace with vendre or vendu. A rule you can test in two seconds is a rule you will actually use.
Do not move on until the rule holds in your own writing. Our list of common French spelling mistakes goes through the usual traps one by one.
Reading a rule is not enough: you need to apply it without seeing the answer. Dictation does exactly that. You hear a sentence, write it in full, then compare it with the original word by word.
Five minutes a day is enough when each sentence targets the rule you are working on. Our guide to French dictation exercises explains how to pick your level and check your text. Apostrophe· works the same way: one short dictation a day on your weak rules, corrected word by word, with the rule shown for each mistake.
Some words trip up almost every English speaker, because the French spelling is close to the English one, but not the same.
| French word | Common mistake | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| adresse | addresse | one d in French |
| connexion | connection | French uses an x |
| langage | language | no u in French |
| développement | dévelopement | one l, two p |
| appartement | apartement | two p in French |
| rythme | rhytme | y after the r, then th |
Write the five that catch you on a card and reread it before you send an important message.
Counting is what keeps you honest. If a rule still causes mistakes in week 4, give it another week before you move on.
Improve your French spelling by working on your own mistakes, not on every rule at once: find the few you repeat, learn the test for each, and practise with dictation until they stop showing up in your writing.
How can I improve my French spelling quickly?
Focus on the mistakes you make most often, one rule at a time, and practise with short dictations every day. Learning every rule at once is slower than fixing your own top three.
What are the most common French spelling mistakes?
Homophones such as a and à, the -é or -er ending, past participle agreement, plurals and missing accents. Words close to English, like adresse or connexion, catch English speakers too.
Is dictation good for learning French spelling?
Yes. You write a whole sentence without seeing it, then check every word, which shows exactly which rules you still miss. It is why dictation is still used in French schools.
How long does it take to improve French spelling?
It depends on how many patterns you repeat. Working on one rule a week, you can check after a month whether each rule still causes mistakes in your own texts.
Do French people make spelling mistakes too?
Yes, and often the same ones as learners: a and à, -é and -er, past participle agreement. French spelling is hard for native speakers as well.
Apostrophe· reads you a sentence, corrects it word by word, and explains the exact rule behind each mistake.
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