Free resource
French flashcards with native audio
Madeleine is a French flashcard app where every card carries native Parisian audio and modern spaced repetition. Instead of building your own deck, you get a curated set of the most common French words and phrases — so you learn how French actually sounds, not just how it's spelled.
Short answer
Madeleine is a French flashcard app with native Parisian audio on every card — a curated, frequency-ordered set of thousand or so common words and everyday phrases, four voices, and FSRS-6 spaced repetition. You don't build cards, import decks, or add audio.
Why audio belongs on every card
French spelling and sound diverge more than almost any language a beginner meets. In everyday speech, words compress:
- je ne sais pas you may hear “chais pas (or j’sais pas)” I don't know
- il y a you may hear “y a” there is / there are
- je suis you may hear “chuis” I am
A silent flashcard teaches you to read a word you may never catch when it's spoken. Every Madeleine card includes native audio, so you train the ear alongside the eye. (More on the gap in the most common French words and how they really sound.)
Hear it yourself — Madeleine's native Parisian audio:
How a card works
- 01
See and hear it
One French word appears, read aloud in a native Parisian voice. No timers, no lives, no noise.
- 02
Hold to recall
Press and hold to reveal the meaning and replay the audio. The grading happens quietly in the background — you never rate yourself.
- 03
It comes back
Each card returns right before you’d forget it. FSRS-6 adapts to your memory, so reviews land exactly when they should.
Curated, not build-your-own
Anki and Quizlet are flexible build-your-own tools: you source the words, find the audio, decide the order, and maintain the deck. Madeleine is the opposite — one frequency-ordered set of the French worth learning first, with native audio on every card and FSRS-6 built in. You don't manage the system. You practise.
What Madeleine won't do: teach grammar, give you a full course, or make you fluent. It makes high-frequency French vocabulary stick — in the ear as well as the eye.
Start with the words that matter
About a thousand words and everyday phrases, each with native Parisian audio and spaced repetition. No streaks, no points, no guilt — and nothing leaves your iPhone.
$9.99/month or $49.99/year · iPhone only · cancel anytime
Questions
- Do the flashcards have audio?
- Yes — every word and phrase carries lifelike, native French audio, in four voices you can choose between. The audio is the point: French spelling and sound diverge so much that hearing each card is half the learning.
- Is this like Anki for French?
- It has Anki's memory power — FSRS-6, a modern, open spaced-repetition algorithm — without the work. There's no deck to build, no cards to source, and no audio to add: you get a curated set of the most common French, with native audio on every card, in a calm interface with no streaks or points.
- Can I make my own flashcards?
- No, and that's deliberate. Madeleine is a single curated set of the thousand or so most common French words and everyday phrases, ordered by real-world frequency, so you never have to decide what to learn or build a deck — you just practise.
Anki and Quizlet are trademarks of their respective owners. Madeleine is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.