Easy French Platinum is an older piece of software that is available as a full download, rather than a monthly subscription. It has four levels of French lessons that cover beginner and intermediate topics, so advanced learners likely won't get much value here. The early lessons teach greetings and conversational basics like how to describe yourself, travel terms and phrases to help you meet new people - very standard. If you have experience with the basics of the French language, the software offers an assessment test so you start at an appropriate level. Whether you’re brushing up on your French or learning the language for the first time, you want to find the best learn French software to fit your skill level, and while Easy French is decent, it doesn't rank among the best.
Easy French Platinum teaches and tests multiple skills at once. Most of the exercises focus on building vocabulary and improving your pronunciation. For example, the software’s multiple-choice game uses a combination of vocabulary and pronunciation exercises. Instead of simply clicking the right answer, Easy French Platinum asks you to say your answer aloud and doesn’t accept mispronounced words. The speech recognition tool records your answer and matches it with one of the possible choices.
Each lesson begins with a list of vocab words and phrases to build a base for the rest of the lesson. There are around 50 words and phrases in this introductory list, and each French word is paired with its English translation, an image, and notes about common uses and synonyms. You can listen to and speak the words on your own or run through a drill that cycles through the list in order. When you choose to do the drill, the program runs through the list of words and prompts you to repeat and record yourself. As you record, the accuracy gauge grades your pronunciation.
The grammar lessons are thorough and useful, but you may be tempted to skip through them without really learning. Instead of quizzing you or presenting concepts as games, this section is a simple read-through lesson. You are not graded or held accountable for learning grammar, making it less interactive than other parts of the course.
Easy French Platinum doesn’t have a mobile app, which puts it at a significant disadvantage, but you can download MP3 lessons. When we first tried it, the installation process was buggy and we had to download the program multiple times to get all the files. The software also crashed multiple times during testing, which counts against it.
Should you try Easy French Platinum?
Easy French Platinum has a long list of activities to help you learn French. However, it has an outdated user-interface and lacks a few of the newer features found in more modern learn French programs like Rosetta Stone and Rocket Languages. Overall it's an average piece of software that we can recommend, but not above several other superior options.
