There's no shortage of apps that touch French verbs. The hard part is picking one that actually trains the skill your students struggle with, producing conjugated forms, rather than one that feels productive but quietly teaches recognition.

This is a practical guide to the main options, what each does well, and the criteria that matter when you're choosing a tool for a class rather than for yourself.

What to look for in a classroom tool

Before the options, here's the checklist worth holding each app against:

  • Production, not recognition. Does the student type the form, or pick it from options? Multiple choice and word banks train recognition; conversation and exams require production.
  • Tense and mood coverage. Does it go past présent and passé composé into imparfait, futur, conditionnel, and the subjunctive your syllabus needs?
  • Feedback that teaches. When a student is wrong, does it just show the answer, or explain the derivation?
  • Structure by frequency. Does it build from the highest-frequency verbs outward, or dump everything at once?
  • Offline and login-light. Can students just open it and practice, without school accounts and Wi-Fi dependencies?
  • Affordable classroom access. Is there bulk or classroom licensing, or does every student need their own paid subscription?

The main options

Duolingo

Good at: motivation, streaks, vocabulary, early exposure, and getting reluctant students to open something daily.

Falls short for conjugation: it treats conjugation shallowly and leans on multiple choice and word banks, which train recognition rather than production. Students can keep a long streak without ever producing a conjugated form unprompted. Useful as a supplement, not as your conjugation tool.

Conjuguemos

Good at: classroom familiarity. It's been a staple for years and has typed practice and teacher features.

Falls short: the experience feels dated, and the practice loop and feedback are thinner than newer tools. Still, the typed-answer focus puts it ahead of multiple-choice apps for production.

Le Conjugueur / Reverso Conjugaison

Good at: being an excellent reference. When you or a student needs to look up a full conjugation table, these are fast and reliable.

Falls short for practice: they're references, not practice tools. There's no drilling loop, no feedback, no progress tracking. Pair them with a practice app rather than expecting them to build the skill.

Anki (and shared decks)

Good at: spaced repetition done right, and total customization for teachers willing to build or curate decks.

Falls short: setup is genuinely painful, the UX is power-user territory, and most shared conjugation decks are recognition-style cards. Great for a motivated individual; hard to deploy across a class of teenagers.

Bonjour Verbs

Good at: the specific gap above: typed-answer conjugation practice across all 15 tenses and 2,000+ verbs, structured by frequency into guided levels, with stepwise derivation feedback on every miss (prendre → stem pren- → nous → prenions). It works fully offline, an account is optional, and it tracks per-tense mastery so you can see where students are solid and where they're shaky.

Worth knowing: it's deliberately narrow. It doesn't try to teach all of French; it makes students fluent at conjugation specifically, which is usually the exact wall your class is stuck at. For classrooms, there's discounted access for your students: you arrange it once, students redeem a code, no individual payment and no dashboard to manage. See classroom options →

Matching the tool to the job

A realistic stack for a French class:

  1. A reference (Le Conjugueur) for lookups.
  2. A dedicated typed-answer practice app (Bonjour Verbs) for the daily production drilling that builds the skill.
  3. Optionally a broad app (Duolingo) for vocabulary and motivation, if students already enjoy it.

The one category not to skip is #2. Vocabulary apps and reference sites are easy to add; the production practice is the part that actually moves students from "understands the rule" to "uses it correctly under pressure."

Common questions

What's the best French verb app for classrooms?

One that uses typed-answer production rather than multiple choice, covers the tenses your course needs, explains mistakes, works offline without per-student logins, and offers affordable classroom access. Apps built specifically for conjugation fit this better than broad language apps.

Is Duolingo good for teaching French conjugation?

It's useful for vocabulary, motivation, and early exposure, but it treats conjugation shallowly and leans on multiple choice, which trains recognition. For students who must produce conjugated forms, supplement it with dedicated typed-answer practice.

Do students need to pay individually?

Not always. Some apps, including Bonjour Verbs, offer classroom licensing where the teacher arranges access once and students redeem a code, usually cheaper per student and with no credit cards from minors.

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