A French Reading App for 2020s
Read books in French
mywords.io: Read french books easily
Bonjour, language nerds and bookworms. Welcome to mywords.io, where I’ve made it my mission to help you read French books without feeling like you’re drowning in a sea of untranslatable nonsense. No flashy promises, no “be fluent in 30 days” nonsense. Just you, some excellent French literature, and a few clever tools to help you enjoy it.
Why Are We Here?
Because reading in another language is hard. And if you’ve ever cracked open Madame Bovary and thought, “Why is every other word a mystery?” I feel you. Inspired by Adele Goldberg’s work on usage-based learning (fancy talk for “context matters”), I built a platform that gives you what you actually need: the ability to figure out what’s going on without constantly Googling words or losing your place.
What Makes mywords.io Cool?
Word-in-Context (WIC) Technology
Here’s the thing about words: they’re sneaky. They don’t always mean the same thing depending on where you find them. That’s where WIC comes in. Click on a word like noyé, and instead of getting a generic translation like “drowned,” you get something better—its actual meaning in the sentence J'étais noyé dans le bruit et la poussière. Spoiler: it’s more like “overwhelmed” here.
WIC works because it reads the room. You get a quick French and English definition that fits the vibe, not just the dictionary.
The screenshot below comes from my personal reading session of the book ‘Psychologie des Foules’ by Le Bon. For words that I’m not 100% sure about, I first predicted their contextual meaning in French in my head, and the clicked on them to verify if they meant indeed what I thought.
Dynamic Word Notebook
Every word you click on? It’s automatically saved in your Vocabulary Notebook, so you can revisit it later when you’re feeling studious (or bored). It’s not just a boring list either; it tracks the different contexts where you found each word. You’ll start seeing patterns, and soon you’ll know these words like old friends.
Save Sentences, Not Just Words
Ever fall in love with a sentence? Or maybe it just baffles you, and you want to come back to it later. Either way, the Sentence Contextualisation feature lets you save entire sentences to your notebook. Because let’s face it, words are better with their friends.
Reverse Index: The Google of French Contexts
Need to see how a particular word behaves in the wild? The Reverse Index feature lets you search for all the contexts where a word shows up in the library. It’s like stalking your favourite word to understand its quirks and habits.
What Can You Read?
I’ve got a growing library of French books, from timeless classics to modern works:
Le Petit Prince (yes, it’s mandatory)
Madame Bovary (for when you’re in the mood for some drama)
Essays by Gustave Le Bon (nerdy, but worth it)
Modern stuff from Yann LeCun (to be added)
These aren’t just here for show. They’re packed with real, living French—so you can stop reading stilted textbook sentences and start absorbing the good stuff.
So, Why Should You Care?
Because reading in French doesn’t have to feel like running a marathon with a dictionary strapped to your back. mywords.io is here to make it smoother, weirder, and way more enjoyable. You’ll actually start to get French, one beautifully confusing sentence at a time.
No Pressure, Just Books
Sign up if you’re curious. I’m not here to sell you some grand language-learning journey. I’m just a guy who think certain French books are pretty great and want to share the tools that make reading them easier and more fun.
So grab a croissant and dive in. Let’s read some French.