How to speak French like a native ... start before age 10

ALWAYS wanted to speak a foreign language like a native? Well, unless you started before you were ten, the chances are slim, researchers say.

However, the good news is we can all become ‘very skilled’ at speaking a foreign language as long as we start before 18, according to their study.

Our ability to learn languages declines after around 17.4 years of age – possibly due to changes in the brain, the study said.

Nearly 700,000 participants who had learnt English as a foreign language took part in the grammar quiz on Facebook.

It asked them to assess whether sentences such as ‘Yesterday John wanted to won the race’ were correct or not.

Researchers then compared participants’ results with the age at which they began to learn English. It found the ability to learn grammar fades slowly from age ten, then declines more significantly at around 17 or 18.

Joshua Hartshorne, a Psychology professor at Boston College in the US, said the findings – in journal Cognition – were a surprise, as it had been thought language skills may decline from birth or early childhood.