Learn Hardcore French: Cette méthode aide à apprendre le français.

You cannot say ✗ aide apprendre in standard French; the preposition à is required with aider + infinitive (when you don’t mention the person being helped).

When you do mention the person, the pattern is:

aider quelqu’un à faire quelque chose
e.g. Cette méthode aide les débutants à apprendre le français.
This method helps beginners learn French.

Why is it cette méthode and not ce méthode?

Because méthode is a feminine noun in French.

Demonstrative adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun:

ce : masculine singular → ce livre (this book)
cette : feminine singular → cette méthode (this method)
cet : masculine singular before a vowel or mute h → cet homme (this man)
ces : plural (masc. or fem.) → ces méthodes (these methods)

Since méthode is feminine singular, you must use cette.

Why do we say le français, not just français or du français?

With names of languages as direct objects of verbs like apprendre, parler, étudier, French normally uses the definite article le / la / les:

apprendre le français – to learn French
parler l’anglais (more common: parler anglais, see below)
étudier l’espagnol – to study Spanish

In careful or neutral written style, the article is very common: apprendre le français.

However, in everyday speech you’ll also often hear apprendre le français (with the article) but parler français (without it). With apprendre, le français is by far the most natural.

✗ apprendre du français is usually wrong here; du français would suggest “some French” in a more partitive sense and isn’t how you express “to learn French (the language)” as a general skill.

Could you also say Cette méthode aide à apprendre du français? Does it change the meaning?

You could say aide à apprendre du français, but it sounds odd or at least unusual in this context.

apprendre le français → learn French (the language, as a whole subject)
apprendre du français → would suggest learning some French, some amount or bits of French, not the language in general

In practice, for talking about learning the language, people say:

Cette méthode aide à apprendre le français.

Using du français would sound imprecise or like emphasizing “some (amount of) French,” and it’s not what a textbook or teacher would model.

Can we include the person being helped, like “This method helps me learn French”? Where would me go?

Yes. In French, object pronouns usually go before the verb. With aider, the pattern is:

aider quelqu’un à faire quelque chose
→ help someone to do something

With a pronoun:

Cette méthode m’aide à apprendre le français.
This method helps me learn French.

Other examples:

Cette méthode t’aide à apprendre le français. (helps you)
Cette méthode nous aide à apprendre le français. (helps us)

So the structure is:
Cette méthode + (pronoun) + aide à + infinitive + le français.

Why is français not capitalized here, even though it’s the name of a language?

In French, language names are not capitalized when they are common nouns:

le français, l’anglais, l’espagnol, le japonais

They are capitalized when used as adjectives of nationality referring to people or things:

un Français – a Frenchman
une Française – a Frenchwoman
un étudiant français – a French student

In apprendre le français, français is the name of the language (a common noun), so it stays lowercase.

Could we say Cette méthode permet d’apprendre le français instead? What’s the difference between aide à and permet de?

Yes, you can say:

Cette méthode permet d’apprendre le français.

Both are correct, but the nuance is slightly different:

aider à faire quelque chose → “to help (to) do something”
Suggests support, facilitation, making it easier.
permettre de faire quelque chose → “to allow / make it possible to do something”
Focuses more on enabling or giving the possibility.

So:

Cette méthode aide à apprendre le français.
The method helps you in the learning process.
Cette méthode permet d’apprendre le français.
The method makes it possible to learn French (it is sufficient / adequate for that).

Both are natural; aide à sounds more like “it is helpful,” while permet de can sound a bit stronger or more formal.

Why is it aide à apprendre and not aide le français à apprendre (like “helps French to be learned”)?

French word order and verb patterns are different from English here.

The structure is:

aider à + infinitive → to help (with) doing something

The action being helped (apprendre le français) is treated as a whole: apprendre is the infinitive verb, and le français is its object.

So the breakdown is:

Cette méthode – subject
aide – verb
à apprendre – “to learn” (infinitive)
le français – object of apprendre

Putting le français before à apprendre, like aide le français à apprendre, would completely change the grammar and sound wrong; it would suggest that “French” itself is learning something, which makes no sense.

What is the general pattern of aider with people vs. actions?

There are two main patterns:

aider quelqu’un à faire quelque chose
- J’aide mon ami à apprendre le français.
  I help my friend learn French.
aider à faire quelque chose (no explicit person)
- Cette méthode aide à apprendre le français.
  This method helps (with) learning French.

So:

If you say who is being helped → aider quelqu’un à + infinitif
If you only talk about the activity being helped → aider à + infinitif

How is aide pronounced here? Do we pronounce the final -e?

In aide / aider, the final -e is not pronounced.

aide is pronounced like [ɛd] (similar to English “ed” in “Ed”, but shorter and crisper).
In the whole sentence:
Cette méthode aide à apprendre le français
→ roughly: set met-OD ED a a-pran-druh luh fron-SAY

Details:

The e at the end of aide is silent.
There is a small pause between aide and à; no liaison here.
The d in aide is clearly pronounced.

So you do not say something like “aid-eh”; it’s just “ed”.