This tool estimates how long a French passage takes to read silently. It counts the words in your text and divides by a reading rate, defaulting to the French silent-reading average so the estimate reflects how French actually reads rather than an English benchmark.
How it works
The estimate is a simple, transparent formula:
reading time (minutes) = word count / words-per-minuteThe word count uses a regular expression that matches runs of letters including
French accented characters, and keeps apostrophes and hyphens that sit inside a
word, so l'ami and grand-mère are each one word. The default rate is 195
WPM, the commonly cited French silent-reading average; slower and faster presets
let you model careful reading (160) or skimming (260).
Tips and notes
French reads a little slower than English at the same education level because of
its denser orthography: silent endings, liaisons, and accents add visual load.
That is why the default here is 195 rather than the English 238. For
voice-over or speech timing, switch your mental model entirely, since spoken
French runs closer to 140 WPM. Pair this tool with the French syllable counter
and the Flesch-Douma readability tool when you want a fuller picture of how
demanding a text is to read.