Read French aloud in a natural voice
Lullula reads French pages, Google Docs and PDFs with a neural French narrator, highlighting each sentence as it goes. Useful for DELF preparation, the daily news and anything else you'd rather hear than decode. Free, no account needed.
Free · No account needed · Chrome, Edge and Firefox
Denise is one of Lullula's French narrators. Press play and she introduces herself in French. The other pills are the same engine in a few other languages, for comparison.
These are premium neural voices. Without an account, try them with a one-time allowance of about 500 words, plus 10 AI summaries from a separate allowance. A free account adds about 2,000 premium words a month, shared with AI summaries. Built-in browser voices are free and unlimited.
How to have French text read aloud
Three steps, and nothing to set up beyond installing the extension.
Install Lullula
Add the free extension from the Chrome Web Store, Edge Add-ons or Firefox Add-ons. No account needed.
Open something in French
A Le Monde article, an RFI Savoirs page, a French Wikipedia entry, or a text-based or scanned PDF from your course.
Press play
Lullula recognises that the page is French and reads it with a French narrator, highlighting each sentence. Adjust the speed, skip back a sentence, or switch narrator.
Where French text to speech helps
For learners preparing for an exam, heritage speakers, and anyone who reads French more slowly than they'd like to.
Le Monde and the daily news
Have the day's articles read to you while you cook, or play the AI summary first and only listen to the ones that matter.
RFI Savoirs and other learning sites
Articles, exercises and any other text on the page, read aloud at the speed you choose, with the current sentence highlighted so your eyes stay with the audio.
French Wikipedia
Long entries, proper names, dates: a narrator keeps the pace steady, and, once you sign in, Lullula remembers your place for the next session.
DELF preparation
Listening comprehension takes hours of French in your ears. Turn your reading practice into listening practice: play at full speed, then slow it down and shadow the difficult sentences one at a time.
What it can't do (yet)
Lullula reads text. A few limits are worth knowing before you install.
Mixed-language pages
Lullula picks one narrator per page from the page's language. A French article with a few English quotes is read by the French narrator throughout, and a mostly-English page with some French in it gets the English narrator. It doesn't switch voices mid-page.
PDFs and EPUBs on your own disk
A file from your computer: in Chrome and Edge, turn on the extension’s access to file URLs once (on its details page). In Firefox, open the PDF and drop it onto the panel Lullula shows; EPUB files from your disk don’t open in Firefox. Pages on the web need nothing extra.
DRM-protected books
E-books bought with copy protection, which includes most Kindle and store purchases, can't be opened. DRM-free EPUBs read fine, with the same highlighting and speed control as a web page.
Questions, answered
Is the voice good enough for listening practice?
Denise is a neural voice; press play above and judge for yourself. It's a supplement to recordings of real speakers rather than a replacement for them, but it turns every French text you already read into listening practice.
Does it work on French PDFs?
Yes. Course handouts, articles saved as PDF and DRM-free e-books all read the same way, with the same sentence highlighting and speed control as a web page. Scanned PDFs work too: Lullula recognizes the text on each page in your browser, then reads it aloud like any other page.
Can I slow it down for DELF practice?
Yes. Speed runs from 0.5x to 2x. Skip back a sentence to hear it again, and once you sign in Lullula remembers where you stopped, so you can come back to a long text later and carry on.
Which French narrator will I get?
Lullula chooses a French narrator automatically when it sees a French page. Several are available; Denise is the one in the sample above. Pick the one you like and it becomes your voice for French pages, separate from the narrator you use for English.
Is it free?
Yes. Built-in browser voices are free and unlimited, no account needed. Try premium neural voices like Denise with a one-time allowance of about 500 words, plus 10 AI summaries from a separate allowance. A free account adds about 2,000 premium words a month, shared with AI summaries. If you want more premium listening, Pro is $7.99 a month, or $5 a month billed yearly ($59.99 a year).
Does it work on my phone?
Not yet. Lullula is an extension for desktop Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Mobile apps are coming soon.
Start listening in French
Install Lullula, open a French page, press play. Free, no account needed.
Other languages: Japanese, Spanish, German and Chinese — or see text to speech in 80+ languages. Lullula also reads Google Docs, PDFs and EPUBs aloud.
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