Conversation from minute one
We start with your own words: your work, your week, the sentence you'll need on Thursday. Grammar arrives when it explains something you've just felt.
Private French lessons · online
Speak French like it belongs to you
I'm Lily. I teach French to English speakers who want more than an app: clear structure, real conversation, and one calm hour a week that quietly becomes the part you look forward to.
First 30 minutes on me · no commitment · wherever you are
Online, on Google Meet
Since 2017
teaching French
60 min
of real conversation
Online
in any timezone
The method
Three principles, nothing school-like
No textbook to finish, no verb tables to recite. We build from what you actually need to say — and we take the time to say it well.
A rhythm that breathes
One hour a week, two or three small things in between. Enough to keep moving, never enough to feel like homework.
Kind, unhurried, exacting
I correct without breaking your flow, then send you the three things worth revisiting. Precision, without the performance anxiety.
About
A French teacher, mostly curious about people
I learned to teach the way I wish I'd been taught: slowly, warmly, and with someone who actually listened. Ten years later, the part I still love is watching someone risk a sentence they would never have attempted three months earlier.
Lessons feel like lightly guided conversations. We start from you, I correct on the fly without cutting you off, and each week you leave with two or three things to revisit. Nothing rigid — everything deliberate.
Three things, at random
- Smoked tea, crime novels in the original, Irish podcasts.
- I correct song lyrics in my head. Sorry about that.
- Past students include a pastry chef, two pilots and a vet.
50 phrases that open a French conversation
Free guide
The 50 phrases that open a French conversation
The turns of phrase my students reach for most, pronunciation written plainly rather than in phonetic symbols, and the traps that give English speakers away. Twelve pages, nothing to memorise.
- Fifty phrases sorted by situation: meetings, travel, small talk.
- Pronunciation spelled out simply — no symbols to decode.
- The false friends that quietly change your meaning.
Kind words
What students say
Six months in, I ran my first meeting in French without notes. I genuinely didn't think I'd get there.
Lily corrects you without ever breaking the flow. You leave feeling lighter, and you've learned three times as much.
My fifteen-year-old looks forward to Wednesday evenings. That tells you everything.
Sample testimonials — they'll be replaced by the real ones from the admin area.
Journal
Notes from lessons
What I notice from teaching: the mistakes that keep coming back, the tricks that work, and how to listen to French without it hurting.
Speak before you're ready
You don't wait until you're good enough to speak — speaking is how you get there. In defence of imperfect sentences.
Listening to French without the headache
Twenty minutes a day beats a whole film on Sunday. Here's how to pick what you listen to.
Three mistakes almost every English speaker makes
None of them involve the subjunctive. They're translation reflexes, and two lessons are usually enough to unlearn them.
Contact
A question? Write to me.
I answer everything myself, usually the same day. Tell me where you're starting from and what you'd like to be able to say in French.
Shall we start with one lesson?
Thirty minutes to meet, try the format and leave with a clear plan. Nothing to pay, nothing to commit to afterwards.
Reply within 24 hours · evening slots available