French parallel text from any page you read
Photograph a page of a French book, share an article or paste a few paragraphs. SnapPara shows the French with its English translation, sentence by sentence, so you can read books that are still a little too hard.
French above, English below
What it looks like
The opening of Maupassant's La Parure, photographed from a printed page, with the English SnapPara gave:
C'était une de ces jolies et charmantes filles, nées, comme par une erreur du destin, dans une famille d'employés.
She was one of those pretty, charming girls, born, as if by some mistake of fate, into a family of clerks.
Elle n'avait pas de dot, pas d'espérances, aucun moyen d'être connue, comprise, aimée, épousée par un homme riche et distingué ; et elle se laissa marier avec un petit commis du ministère de l'instruction publique.
She had no dowry, no prospects, no way to be known, understood, loved, or married by a rich and distinguished man; and she let herself be married to a low-ranking clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction.
Tap a sentence and it lights up in both languages. Tap a word to hear it and save it with the sentence and its translation; it comes back on your flashcards. The translation can be into your own language instead of English.
What to read
Any French you already have works: a paperback, a news site, a screenshot of an app. If you're looking for something, these are free and public domain:
- La Parure, Guy de Maupassant (Wikisource) — a short story you can finish in one sitting.
- Les Misérables, tome I : Fantine, Victor Hugo (Project Gutenberg) — long, but each chapter is short.
- Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, tome I, Alexandre Dumas (Project Gutenberg) — a plot that pulls you through the hard parts.
Open a chapter in your phone's browser and share it to SnapVerbo, or photograph a printed page.
Reading French in SnapVerbo
- Accents and French punctuation, such as the space before ; and :, are read from photos as printed.
- A noun's card shows its gender (destin: noun, masculine), which a translation alone doesn't tell you.
- Tap a sentence to see where it starts and ends in both languages: useful in long sentences like Maupassant's.
Questions
- Can I read French books with the English translation on my phone?
- Yes. Photograph a page of a printed book, or share a chapter from Wikisource or Project Gutenberg to SnapVerbo. SnapPara shows each French sentence with its English translation.
- Is the translation only into English?
- No. SnapPara translates French into many languages; set the one you want. This page uses English as the example.
- Do I have to type the French text?
- No. SnapVerbo reads the text from a photo or screenshot on the phone. Web articles are shared from the browser, and you can paste text too.
- Is it free?
- Yes, free forever, with no account needed. Short ads help cover the cost of AI translation.