Vocabulary / French
The 1,000 most common French words
These are the 1,000 words you will meet most often in French, in frequency order, each with its most common English meaning. A small core of words does most of the work in everyday speech, so learning them in this order gets you reading and understanding faster than any themed list.
The very top of the list is grammar glue (non, dire, là, savoir), and that is normal for every language. The words that feel like vocabulary start a few dozen ranks in: temps, vie, homme, monde. Both kinds matter; the glue is what holds every sentence you will ever hear together.
French nouns carry gender, and the list gives you the word alone. When you study a noun from it, learn it with an article, une vie, le monde, because retrofitting genders later is slower than attaching them now.
One line per word means one meaning per word, and common French words are busy: coup alone covers a blow, a shot, a trick and a dozen idioms. Treat the gloss as the word's centre of gravity, not its whole territory.
| # | French | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | nonnɔ̃ | no |
| 2 | dirediʁ | say |
| 3 | ouiwi | yes |
| 4 | làla | there |
| 5 | savoirsa.vwaʁ | know |
| 6 | siɛ.si | if |
| 7 | icii.si | here |
| 8 | alorsa.lɔʁ | then |
| 9 | encoreɑ̃.kɔʁ | still |
| 10 | touttu | all |
| 11 | jamaisʒa.mɛ | never |
| 12 | suivresɥivʁ | follow |
| 13 | tempstɑ̃ | time |
| 14 | mêmemɛm | same |
| 15 | toujourstu.ʒuʁ | always |
| 16 | voirvwaʁ | see |
| 17 | foisfwa | time |
| 18 | choseʃoz | thing |
| 19 | falloirfa.lwaʁ | must |
| 20 | peupø | little |
| 21 | vievi | life |
| 22 | troptʁo | too |
| 23 | hommeɔm | man |
| 24 | peut-êtrepø.t‿ɛtʁ | maybe |
| 25 | pèrepɛʁ | father |
| 26 | mondemɔ̃d | world |
| 27 | pourquoipuʁ.kwa | why |
| 28 | maintenantmɛ̃t.nɑ̃ | now |
| 29 | femmefam | woman |
| 30 | jourʒuʁ | day |
| 31 | mèremɛʁ | mother |
| 32 | déjàde.ʒa | already |
| 33 | autreotʁ | other |
| 34 | anɑ̃ | year |
| 35 | têtetɛt | head |
| 36 | oeilœj | eye |
| 37 | vraimentvʁɛ.mɑ̃ | really |
| 38 | nuitnɥi | night |
| 39 | petitpə.ti | small |
| 40 | dieudjø | god |
| 41 | bonbɔ̃ | good |
| 42 | croirekʁwaʁ | believe |
| 43 | moinsmwɛ̃ | less |
| 44 | sûrsyʁ | sure |
| 45 | airɛʁ | air |
| 46 | commentkɔ.mɑ̃ | how |
| 47 | beaucoupbo.ku | much |
| 48 | soirswɛː(ɾ) | evening |
| 49 | mainmɛ̃ | hand |
| 50 | venirvə.niʁ | come |
| 51 | parlerpaʁ.le | speak |
| 52 | mieuxmjø | better |
| 53 | fillefij | daughter |
| 54 | maisonmɛ.zɔ̃ | house |
| 55 | coupku | blow |
| 56 | momentmɔ.mɑ̃ | moment |
| 57 | besoinbə.zwɛ̃ | need |
| 58 | aimerɛ.me | love |
| 59 | gensʒɑ̃ | people |
| 60 | vraivʁɛ | true |
| 61 | commekɔm | like |
| 62 | seulsœl | alone |
| 63 | accorda.kɔʁ | agreement |
| 64 | grandɡʁɑ̃ | big |
| 65 | monsieurmə.sjø | mister |
| 66 | peurpœʁ | fear |
| 67 | heureœʁ | hour |
| 68 | nomnɔ̃ | name |
| 69 | vitevit | fast |
| 70 | asseza.se | enough |
| 71 | portepɔʁt | door |
| 72 | amoura.muʁ | love |
| 73 | regarderʁə.ɡaʁ.de | look |
| 74 | tanttɑ̃ | so |
| 75 | prendrepʁɑ̃.dʁə | take |
| 76 | malmal | bad |
| 77 | justeʒyst | just |
| 78 | enfantɑ̃.fɑ̃ | child |
| 79 | côtéko.te | side |
| 80 | mortmɔʁ | death |
| 81 | voixvwa | voice |
| 82 | corpskɔʁ | body |
| 83 | filsfis | son |
| 84 | placeplas | place |
| 85 | faitfɛ | fact |
| 86 | argentaʁ.ʒɑ̃ | money |
| 87 | passerpa.se | pass |
| 88 | eauo | water |
| 89 | enfinɑ̃.fɛ̃ | finally |
| 90 | loinlwɛ̃ | far |
| 91 | terretɛʁ | earth |
| 92 | penserpɑ̃.se | think |
| 93 | tardtaʁ | late |
| 94 | arrivera.ʁi.ve | arrive |
| 95 | mamanma.mɑ̃ | mom |
| 96 | seulementsœl.mɑ̃ | only |
| 97 | ainsiɛ̃.si | thus |
| 98 | raisonʁɛ.zɔ̃ | reason |
| 99 | jeuneʒœn | young |
| 100 | presquepʁɛsk | almost |
This page is the short version. The full list has 5,000 French words.
See all 5,000Sources and licences
The ranking is ours, built from the frequency data below and published under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Two things worth knowing before you read it. The list holds content words - nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs - so the function words that top any raw frequency count are not in it: no le, de, et, and no pronouns. And each entry gives one everyday meaning, written to be the one you are most likely to need, not the word's full range of senses.
To cite this resource: linguafolks. The most common French words. www.linguafolks.com/articles/most-common-words/fr. Teachers and institutions are welcome to use, print or adapt the lists in coursework with attribution and a link.
- Lexique 3.83
French lemma frequency, separated by part of speech and by register. CC BY-SA 4.0.
B. New, C. Pallier, G. Schalchli, J. Bourgin & M. Gimenes (2026). Lexique 4: A major upgrade of the "Lexique" French lexical database. Behavior Research Methods, 58(5), 140.
- Wiktionary
Pronunciation (IPA), where an entry has one - coverage is partial, and a word without one shows none. CC BY-SA and GFDL, dual-licensed.
Obtained in machine-readable form from kaikki.org. Tatu Ylonen (2022). Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data. LREC 2022, pp. 1317-1325.
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