1000 Most Common French Words
When starting to learn French, it is always a good idea to memorize the most common words first. This will enable you to understand many more situations than if you were leaning your French vocabulary from random sources. Here’s the list of most common French words along with their English translation. Note that some words in the list perform a similar function and can be grouped into a single entry with a higher combined rank. These words include:
un, une and des – the French equivalents for a, an and some
le, la, l’ and les – the French equivalents for the
mon, ma and mes – the French equivalents for my
t’ and te – the French equivalents for you, yourself
Most Used French words 1-50
| Rank | Audio | French word | English translation | Part of speech |
| 1. |
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être | to be; being | verb, auxiliary verb, noun |
| 2. |
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avoir | to have | verb, auxiliary verb |
| 3. |
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je | I | personal pronoun |
| 4. |
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de | of, from, by, than, in, with (see #28) | preposition |
| 5. |
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ne | not | adverb |
| 6. |
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pas | not; step, pace | adverb, noun |
| 7. |
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le | the; him, it (refering to a masculine singular noun) (see #8, 15, 18) | definite article, personal pronoun |
| 8. |
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la | the; her, it (refering to a feminine singular noun) (see #7, 15, 18) | definite article, personal pronoun |
| 9. |
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tu | you | personal pronoun |
| 10. |
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vous | you, yourself | personal pronoun |
| 11. |
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il | he, it | personal pronoun |
| 12. |
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et | and | conjunction |
| 13. |
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à | in, to, with | preposition |
| 14. |
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un | a, an; one (used before a masculine singular noun) (see #26, 31) | indefinite article |
| 15. | — | l’ | the (used instead of ”le” or ”la” before nouns that begin with a vowel) (see #7, 8, 18) | definite article, personal pronoun |
| 16. |
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qui | who, whom; that, which | relative pronoun, interrogative pronoun |
| 17. |
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aller | to go | verb |
| 18. |
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les | the; them (referring to a plural noun) (see #7, 8, 15) | definite article, personal pronoun |
| 19. |
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en | in, into, to, as | preposition, personal pronoun, adverb |
| 20. |
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ça | this, that (see #203) | demonstrative pronoun |
| 21. |
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faire | to do, make | verb |
| 22. |
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tout | all, everything, any; very, quite | adjective, indefinite adjective, indefinite pronoun, adverb, noun |
| 23. |
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on | we, you | personal pronoun |
| 24. |
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que | that; what; which | relative pronoun, interrogative pronoun |
| 25. |
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ce | this, that (see #73, 99, 201) | demonstrative pronoun, demonstrative adjective |
| 26. |
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une | a, an; one (used before a feminine singular noun) (see #14, 31) | indefinite article |
| 27. |
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mes | my (used before plural nouns) (see #50, 108) | possessive adjective |
| 28. | — | d’ | of, from, by, than, in, with (used before a vowel or mute h) (see #4) | preposition |
| 29. |
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pour | for | preposition |
| 30. |
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se | himself, herself, themselves (see #60) | personal pronoun |
| 31. |
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des | some (used before a plural noun) (see #14, 26) | indefinite article |
| 32. |
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dire | to say, tell | verb, noun |
| 33. |
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pouvoir | can, to be able to | verb, noun |
| 34. |
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vouloir | to want | verb |
| 35. |
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mais | but | conjunction |
| 36. |
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me | me, myself | personal pronoun |
| 37. |
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nous | we, us | personal pronoun |
| 38. |
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dans | in, into | preposition |
| 39. |
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elle | she, it (refers to a feminine singular noun) | personal pronoun |
| 40. |
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savoir | to know | verb |
| 41. |
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du | (de + le/les) = of the, from the | definite article |
| 42. |
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où | where, that | relative pronoun, interrogative pronoun |
| 43. | — | y | it, there | personal pronoun |
| 44. | — | t’ | you, yourself (shortened form used before a vowel) | personal pronoun |
| 45. |
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bien | well, very; good | adverb, noun |
| 46. |
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voir | to see | verb |
| 47. |
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plus | more | adverb |
| 48. |
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non | no | adverb |
| 49. |
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te | you, yourself | personal pronoun |
| 50. |
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mon | my (used before a masculine singular noun) (see #27, 108) | possessive adjective |
The frequency list is based on original work of Boris New, Christophe Pallier, 2001 L’équipe de Lexique.
The voice is by Vion Nicolas, a speaker from Région Parisienne, living in Paris. Thanks to Vion Nicolas for making audio recordings available. Audio copyright © Vion Nicolas 2006 CC-BY.
How do you say “I love you” in French?
@Natalie
Je t’aime, and I love you too is je t’aime aussi.
To pronounce je, it sounds like the g in mirage and ‘eh.’
T’aime is simply pronounced like ‘tem.’
Then aussi is pronounced ‘oh see.’
This list of French words is very very good!! I’m a French student, I love French language, and I find it very hard, but I think that this site can help a lot!! Learning the most common words is the first step.
How can I say “Good morning”and “Hello” in French? Is there a difference between formal and informal ways to say hello?
I will help you with French, English and Spanish.
@Alex
“Bonjour” is a French word meaning “hello”, “good morning” and “good day”. The word is actually composed of two words: bon means good and jour means day. It is pronounced as [bo(n)-'zhooR] Good luck with the nasal n-sound, not found in English!