The 100 Most Common French Words

These are the 100 most common French words, ranked by how often they appear in real French text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	le	luh	the (definite article)
2	de	duh	of
3	un	uhn	one
4	être	EH-truh	be
5	et	ay	and
6	à	ah	to
7	il	eel	he
8	avoir	ah-VWAR	have
9	ne	nuh	not (negation)
10	je	zhuh	I
11	son	sohn	his
12	que	kuh	that (conjunction)
13	se	suh	self
14	qui	kee	who
15	ce	suh	this
16	dans	dahn	in
17	en	ahn	in
18	elle	el	she
19	pour	poor	for
20	pas	pah	not (negation)
21	vous	voo	you (formal/plural)
22	par	par	by
23	sur	sewr	on
24	faire	fair	do
25	plus	plew	more
26	dire	deer	say
27	me	muh	me
28	on	ohn	we
29	mon	mohn	my
30	lui	lwee	him
31	nous	noo	we
32	comme	kohm	like
33	mais	meh	but
34	pouvoir	poo-VWAR	can
35	avec	ah-VEK	with
36	tout	too	all
37	y	ee	there
38	aller	ah-LAY	go
39	voir	vwar	see
40	bien	byan	well
41	où	oo	where
42	sans	sahn	without
43	tu	tew	you (informal)
44	ou	oo	or
45	leur	luhr	their
46	homme	ohm	man
47	si	see	if
48	deux	duh	two
49	savoir	sah-VWAR	know
50	temps	tahn	time
51	mettre	MEH-truh	put
52	autre	OH-truh	other
53	devoir	duh-VWAR	must / have to
54	avant	ah-VAHN	before
55	même	mem	same / even
56	prendre	PRAHN-druh	take
57	aussi	oh-SEE	also
58	celui	suh-LWEE	the one / that one
59	donner	doh-NAY	give
60	fois	fwah	time (occasion)
61	encore	ahn-KOR	still / again
62	nouveau	noo-VOH	new
63	cela	suh-LAH	that (pronoun)
64	entre	AHN-truh	between
65	premier	pruh-MYAY	first
66	vouloir	voo-LWAR	want
67	déjà	day-ZHAH	already
68	grand	grahn	big / tall
69	moins	mwan	less
70	aucun	oh-KUHN	none / not any
71	très	treh	very
72	falloir	fah-LWAR	to be necessary
73	quelque	KEL-kuh	some / a few
74	notre	NOH-truh	our
75	dont	dohn	whose / of which
76	non	nohn	no
77	an	ahn	year
78	monde	mohnd	world
79	jour	zhoor	day
80	demander	duh-mahn-DAY	ask
81	alors	ah-LOR	then / so
82	après	ah-PREH	after
83	trouver	troo-VAY	find
84	personne	pair-SOHN	person
85	rendre	RAHN-druh	give back / make (render)
86	part	par	share / part
87	dernier	dair-NYAY	last
88	venir	vuh-NEER	come
89	pendant	pahn-DAHN	during
90	passer	pah-SAY	pass / spend (time)
91	peu	puh	little / few
92	quand	kahn	when
93	bon	bohn	good
94	comprendre	kohm-PRAHN-druh	understand
95	depuis	duh-PWEE	since
96	vie	vee	life
97	ainsi	an-SEE	thus
98	heure	uhr	hour
99	rester	res-TAY	stay
100	chose	shohz	thing

Show all 100 wordsShow the first 20

Ranked by lemma frequency in published French corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn French online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about French words

How many French words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak French?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this French word list come from?

From published French word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.