Getting started
Francroyable has four tabs at the bottom: Learn, Cards, Chat and Settings, with a round + in the middle for adding a card from anywhere.
Signing in
Enter your email address and tap Continue with email. We email you a 6-digit code; type it in and you’re signed in. There’s no password to remember. The first time, this creates your account and a deck called My deck, where your cards go.
Your first card
Learn is empty until you add something. Tap Add your first card, or Or start with a topic to try some ready-made ones (see Topics). You start with 25 credits for the magic wand.
Adding cards
Tap the round + to open New card. Type or say what you heard in Phrase you heard: a word, an expression or a whole sentence.
Marking the answer with brackets
A card is a sentence with a gap. Put [square brackets] round the words that go in the gap:
Je suis complètement [crevé] ce soir.
The bracketed words become the Correct answer, and Card shows previews the sentence with a blank. You can also select the words and tap [ ] Mark answer. Add up to three wrong answers to choose from, then tap Save card. Only one pair of brackets per card.
The magic wand
Tap the purple wand, Fill in the rest, and it writes the rest of the card:
- Just a word or expression (“crevé”): it writes a natural sentence around it.
- A sentence with brackets: it keeps your sentence.
Either way it adds three wrong answers, a translation (the hint) and a dictionary entry. Check it, change anything you like, and save. Undo puts back what you typed. Each card the wand writes uses one credit.
No connection? Tap Generate when online: the card is saved now and filled in when you’re back online.
Speaking a phrase
Tap the microphone in the phrase box and say it. Your iPhone turns your voice into text, which you can correct before saving. The first time, iOS asks to use the microphone and speech recognition.
Several cards at once
Put one phrase on each line (tap New line, or press Return) and the wand button changes to Make 3 cards. You can add up to 20 lines at a time. Next you see each new card: untick any you don’t want, choose a deck, and save. Each card made uses one credit.
Pasting a text
Paste a message, a menu or an email into the phrase box. When it’s a longer text, the button becomes Pick out phrases. The wand reads it and suggests the phrases worth learning, each in its own sentence from your text, and skips ones already in your cards. Picking is free; each card you then make uses one credit. Texts can be up to 2,000 characters.
Choosing a deck
New cards go into My deck unless you choose another. Tap the deck name at the top of New card to pick one.
Learning
Learn shows the cards that are due, one at a time, with how many are left at the top.
Answering
- Pick the missing words: choose from four answers.
- Type the missing words: for cards with fewer than three wrong answers. Case, apostrophes and spacing don’t matter. A missing accent counts, but the app points it out.
- Say the missing words: turn on Speak your answers in Settings, then tap the microphone and say the answer or the whole sentence. You can switch back to tapping or typing on any card.
You have three tries per card. Stuck? Show the translation gives you the English, and Show me reveals the answer.
When cards come back
How quickly you answer decides when you see the card again. Right first time, it waits longest; on the third try, it comes back sooner; missed, you’ll see it again in 10 minutes. Each time you remember it, the gap grows: days, then weeks, then months. This is spaced repetition, and it’s why a few minutes a day is enough.
All caught up
When nothing is due, you see All caught up: how many cards you reviewed today, your day streak (days in a row you’ve studied), and when the next card is due. A good moment to add what you heard today.
Topics and the daily 10
Topics are ready-made cards: Everyday French (at the café, shopping, getting around, at work and more) and Grammar drills, one tense at a time. Each is marked Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced. Find them from Learn, from Topics in Cards, or in Settings.
- Try 10 cards to see how you do. At the end, keep the ones you want: the ones you knew won’t come back for a while.
- Add all to put a whole topic in your cards. It gets a deck of its own.
To keep it manageable, new topic cards come into Learn 10 a day. When you’ve done today’s, Learn offers to Learn 10 more if you’re keen.
Decks and wand decks
Cards live in decks. Manage them in Settings → Decks:
- New deck to make one, such as Work, Holidays or Netflix.
- Tap a deck to rename or delete it. Deleting a deck deletes its cards. My deck can’t be deleted, because new cards go there.
- Switch a deck off to pause it in Learn. Its cards stay in your collection.
To move a card, open it and tap its deck.
Making a deck with the wand
Tap Make your own deck in Topics, or Make a deck with the wand in Decks. Give it a subject (“at the hairdresser’s”, “a job interview”), a level and how many cards (10, 20 or 30). The wand suggests phrases; untick any you don’t want and it writes a card for each. Suggestions are free; each card made uses one credit. New cards from the deck come into Learn 10 a day.
Chat
Ask anything about French: what something really means, slang, how to say something, tu or vous. The tutor answers like a patient teacher.
- Phrases worth learning appear under the reply. Tap one to open New card with it filled in.
- Your first 20 messages each day are free. After that, each message uses one credit.
- Past chats (the clock at the top) lists earlier conversations; you can delete one or all of them. The pencil starts a new chat.
Audio and pronunciation
Every card’s sentence can be read aloud by a natural French voice: tap the speaker on the card. In Settings → Audio:
- Read sentences aloud plays each sentence after you answer.
- Slower speech uses the same voice, more slowly.
- Saved audio shows how much is kept on your phone for listening offline. Clear removes it.
Say it
On a card, tap Practise saying the sentence. Hear it first if you like, then tap the microphone and say the whole sentence. The app shows which words it understood, and you can listen to yourself. It checks whether you were understood, not your accent, and it doesn’t change when the card comes back. Your recording stays on your phone.
Credits
Credits pay for the magic wand and extra chat messages:
- one card written by the wand: 1 credit;
- one chat message after the day’s 20 free ones: 1 credit;
- suggestions (picking phrases from a text, phrases for a wand deck): free.
Adding cards yourself, learning, topics and audio never use credits. New accounts start with 25 credits.
Buying more
Open Settings → Credits (or tap Get more credits when you run out). Choose 100 credits for €1.99 or 200 credits for €2.99; prices may differ in your country’s currency. Apple handles the payment, and the credits are added as soon as it goes through. Credits you buy don’t expire.
Offline and syncing
Francroyable keeps a copy of your cards on your phone, so you can:
- learn with no connection; your answers sync later, at the time you gave them;
- add, edit and delete cards; they show Not synced until they reach the server;
- save a card for the wand with Generate when online.
The magic wand, Chat, topics you haven’t opened before and audio you haven’t played need a connection. Your cards load once over a connection, then they’re kept on the phone.
Settings and accessibility
- Appearance: Automatic (follows your iPhone), Light or Dark.
- Speak your answers: answer in Learn by voice. This is set on each device.
- Audio: see Audio and pronunciation.
- Text size: Francroyable follows your iPhone’s text size (Settings → Accessibility → Display & Text Size), including the larger accessibility sizes.
Your account
- Sign out is at the bottom of Settings. Cards saved offline that haven’t synced yet stay on the phone and sync when you sign back in.
- Delete account, under Sign out, deletes your account and everything in it, for good. Type DELETE to confirm. More about deleting your account.
Troubleshooting
The code email didn’t arrive
- Wait a minute: it can take a little while.
- Look in your spam or junk folder for an email from Francroyable.
- Check the address. If it’s wrong, tap Use a different email.
- Tap Send a new code (it’s available after a short wait).
The microphone doesn’t work
- In your iPhone’s Settings → Francroyable, turn on Microphone and Speech Recognition.
- If it says speaking needs a connection, your iPhone can’t recognise French offline. Type for now, or connect.
- Everything else in the app works without the microphone.
A purchase didn’t add credits
If you were charged and the credits haven’t appeared, open the app again with a connection: it keeps trying until the credits are added, and you won’t be charged twice. If a purchase needs approval (Ask to Buy), the credits arrive once it’s approved. Still missing after a day? Email us with the date of the purchase.
The wand couldn’t fill in a card
The card says The magic wand couldn’t fill this in. Tap Try the wand again, or edit the card yourself. No credit is used for a card that wasn’t made.
Still stuck?
Contact support. Tell us your iPhone model, what you did and what happened.