The 50 most common words in French

Did you know that there are over 100,000 words in Le Grand Robert, one of France’s leading dictionaries?

Luckily, you don’t need to know all 100,000 words to be fluent in French. In fact, studies suggest that you can be conversational by knowing as few as 5,000 words.

Of course, if you’re going to learn 5,000 words, you should priorities the most commonly used words in the language. Our vocabulary lists cover some of the most frequently used words in different categories, such as transport, animals and food.

But what are the most commonly used words in general? Unsurprisingly, they’re a mixture of articles, nouns, verbs and prepositions and other word classes. These are words that crop up in all kinds of situations and sentences, so they’re extremely important to learn.

If you’re just starting out learning French, it can be confusing to confront a list of frequently used words without any contextual grounding. But if you can memorise all fifty, you’re on your way to a solid understanding of the language.

The fifty most common words in French come from Wiktionary’s frequency lists. In this case, the words are taken from a sample of film subtitles, which provide a helpful insight into how French is commonly spoken. As we’ve written elsewhere, watching movies in French is a great way to improve your French language skills passively.

1. je | I (subject pronoun, first person)

2. de | of/from

3. est | is (present tense of être, third person singular)

4. pas | not

5. le | the (masculine singular)

6. vous | you (informal plural/formal singular)

7. la | the (feminine singular)

8. tu | you (informal singular)

9. que | that

10. un | a (masculine singular)

11. il | he

12. et | and

13. à | to

14. a | has (present tense of avoir, third person singular)

15. ne | not

16. les | the (plural)

17. ce | this (masculine singular)

18. en | in/by

19. on | people/on

20. ça | it

21. une | a (feminine singular)

22. ai | have (present tense of avoir, first person singular)

23. pour | for

24. des | some/of (plural)

25. moi | me

26. qui | who

27. nous | we

28. y | there

29. mais | but

30. me | myself

31. dans | in

32. du | of the/some

33. bien | well

34. elle | she

35. si | if

36. tout | all

37. plus | more

38. non | no

39. mon | my

40. suis | am (present tense of être, first person singular)

41. te | yourself

42. au | to

43. avec | with

44. va | goes (present tense of aller, third person singular)

45. oui | yes

46. toi | you (singular informal accusative)

47. fait | does (present tense of faire, third person singular)

48. ils | they (masculine plural)

49. as | have (present tense of avoir, second person singular form)

50. être | to be

This list was compiled by user Hermitd on Wiktionary. Edits have been made to clarify the forms of the words in English.

Of course, to achieve fluency, you should also familiarise yourself with common phrases in French.

Our blog '20 common phrases in French' will acquaint you with must-know expressions, from S'il vous plaît (please) to Je ne comprends pas (I don't understand).