7 Best French Translator Apps to Download Now

Whether you’re travelling in France, studying French, or wanting to understand something you saw or heard in a French TV show, having access to a French translator app can be invaluable.

Thankfully, there are loads of French translator apps to help you out. But, when you have a choice between so many different ones, how do you know which you should choose?

Our list of the 7 best French translation apps will help you to decide.

Why use a translator app?

The ex-French teacher in me still makes the habit of silently screaming “noooo” whenever I hear translator apps mentioned – and it’s a hard habit to break.

The reason for my initial rejection of translator apps is that I worked with many students over the years who actually didn’t want to learn the language at all. Thus, they did everything they could to make their lives a little easier when it came to homework. Of course, you can’t use a translator app to pass an exam, so I banned their use in my classroom. 

That said, translator apps are so useful for many different reasons, and – dare I say it? – I even use them myself (which would horrify my ex-students, no doubt). So, here are some reasons why French translation apps can be great:

They help you check the meaning of a word or phrase. Due to their effortless usage, a translator app can help you verify what a word means. Beginners especially will come across hundreds of words they don’t know and, as translator apps are updated frequently, you’ll usually be able to find what you’re looking for.

You can use them to enhance your learning. The best way to use a translator app is to learn from it. You can look up words quickly and keep a record of them in a notebook for future reference. The act of writing them down means they’re much more likely to stick around in your memory.

They’re convenient and cost-effective. When I studied French some twenty years ago, the only translator tools you could get were pocket translators that looked a little bit like a calculator. I never bothered with one but did have a huge French dictionary that I’d pore over whenever I needed to. Of course, this was so big that I couldn’t take it anywhere with me and relied on a pocket dictionary out and about, which often wasn’t very good for what I needed. Nowadays, that problem has vanished, and we now have access to all French words on our smartphones!

We mustn’t forget though, that translator apps are limited in what they can do. You couldn’t, for example, translate a whole novel or even the most up-to-date slang using a translator app. But, for convenience and everyday use, they’re fantastic.

What to look out for in a translation app

When you’re on the lookout for a French to English translation app, there are certain things you might want to consider:

• Usability. Is the app user-friendly? It is easy to read the translation without zooming in? Often, we need words translated in a hurry and so finding an app with a user-friendly interface is the number one priority. 

• Functionality. Most French translation apps have an English to French translation app part as well as a French to English translation app part. Make sure that the one you choose offers both (as you’re likely to need it). 

• Accuracy. You can’t replace a real in-person translator with a smartphone translation app. As far as accuracy goes, there isn’t much in it between apps – and you wouldn’t necessarily know if it was accurate or not until a French person pointed out something to you. You should always check out reviews to see what others are saying. Also, look for a translator app that offers more than one possibility. If you look up the French word encore, for example, it could mean one of four things: still, yet, even, again. Does the French to English translation app show you all four meanings?

• Cost. Most French translation apps are available for free, but you might find some that have additional features at a premium. 

Let’s take a look at the 7 best French translation apps available now.

The best French translation apps

1. Google Translate

This wouldn’t be a list of best translation apps if we didn’t mention Google Translate. This app supports more than 100 different languages and fifty of them can be accessed without an internet connection, French included. 

In addition to text translations, Google Translate can also be used with your phone camera to translate text you see in images (including Netflix subtitles!). What’s more, it recognises handwriting and can translate voice input too.

Google Translate is best used for formal or business terms. While not terrible with idioms or casual terms, it isn’t the best app for this. 

What I like about Google Translate:

• It supports loads of languages as well as French
• You can access French offline (which is great for navigating the Parisian Métro system when you have no signal)
• Lots of ways to get a translation – typing, photo, speech, handwriting
• The interface is user-friendly and ad-free

Pricing: free

Devices: iOS/Android

2. iTranslate

iTranslate is an excellent French translator app that gets high reviews. It is user-friendly and has excellent voice-to-text translation capabilities. 

A great feature of iTranslate that is missing from other translation apps is the ‘favorites’ feature. This allows you to great lists of words to access later. So, if you need to remember specific French words and don’t want to look them up over again, you can log them here. 

For most features, the app is free, but to get all the features and to have the app ad-free, you’ll need to subscribe. 

What I like about iTranslate:

• it has excellent voice translations
• it includes a favorites section
• it has a thesaurus and dictionary included

Pricing: free (in-app purchases to remove ads and have access to offline mode and real-time voice translations)

Devices: Android/iOS/Web browser

3. Translate All Languages

Translate is a simple translator that works with over 100 languages. It has a comprehensive speech tool that recognises your voice and translates it. You can translate words, sentences, and paragraphs easily. You can also hear translations really clearly.

So, whether you’re a tourist, a student, or on business, you have an interpreter and translator at your fingertips!

What I like about Translate All Languages:

• Translates phrases and words with ease
• Copy/paste text to other places
• You can share translations with friends
• It records your translation history
• It’s simple and user-friendly

Pricing: free

Devices: iOS/Android

4. Reverso

Reverso is an excellent French to English and English to French translation app, and it also offers German, Spanish, Arabic, Italian, and others.

With Reverso, the translation answers are provided in real-life contexts and sentences, which include extracts from movie subtitles, product descriptions, and official documents. There are also flashcards, games, and quizzes that appear based on what you have searched for. You will also find verb conjugations on there, which is really handy as a language learner!

Unlike a few other apps, you can’t use photos for translations though, which is a shame.

What I like about Reverso:

• Real-life answer contexts
• Contains verb conjugations
• Quizzes, flashcards, and games

Pricing: free

Devices: Web browser/iOS/Android

5. Talk & Translate (Translator & Collins Dictionary)

Talk & Translate is the Collins Dictionary in app form but, unlike my days at university, it’s available in the palm of your hand!

What’s more, it translates 103 different languages using voice and text and even incorporates different dialects like Canadian French. There are 234 different language combinations available to translate on the app, so it’s more than just a French to English translator app.

You can use photos, speech in real-time, voice-to-voice, text-to-voice, and more besides. Like iTranslate, it has a favorites section to keep track of all the words you want to remember, and there’s also a section that shows you recent words.

What I like about Talk & Translate:

• Lots of different language combinations to explore
• Lots of ways of getting a translation 
• Has a favorites and recent section

Pricing: free (premium subscription means unlimited translations and ad-free app)

Devices: iOS/Android

6. Microsoft Translator

With 70 languages available, the Microsoft Translator app is more than just an English to French or French to English translation too. You can use a multi-person conversation translation with a split-screen mode, which is perfect for conversing while travelling or on a business trip.

It also contains a useful phrasebook section and pronunciation tips. When you translate French to English or vice versa, it provides alternative translations to the word or phrase, which is a great feature. You can download languages to be available offline too. 

What I like about Microsoft Translator:

• Excellent split-screen mode for conversation translation 
• Has a handy phrasebook 
• You can download languages to use the app offline

Pricing: free

Devices: Android/iOS

7. Word Reference

While not strictly a translation app, I can’t not mention the excellent resource that is Word Reference. This tool won’t translate sentences for you (you’re better off with Google Translate for that).

However, it will give you all of the possible meanings of a word with some examples in context. It also tells you important information about the word i.e., its gender, or whether it’s a noun/verb/adverb, etc.

What I like about Word Reference:

• It’s more like a dictionary than a translator and you can really learn a lot from it
• You learn the different possible translations for a word by their subtle meanings in different contexts
• It has a verb conjugator tool and a forum too

Pricing: free

Devices: Android/iOS/Web browser

Final thoughts

So, there you have it, the seven best French translation apps out there right now. While they all have different features and capabilities, you’re bound to find something that suits you and what you need from a translation app.

And, because so many of them are free, there’s nothing to stop you from downloading more than one! 

Top French translator apps – Pin it!