The 100 most common French words, explained
The three most common words in spoken French are de (of, from), je (I) and est (is). In 318 million words of French film and television dialogue, the hundred words in the table below make up 56.7% of everything said, and the first ten alone make up 18.2%. Nine of the hundred are not whole words at all: they are c', l', j' and the other clipped forms French uses before a vowel. Below is the full list with meanings, and then the five things about it a learner should notice.
The 100 most common French words
| # | Word | Meaning | Per million words | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | de | of, from | 26,509 | 2.7% |
| 2 | je | I | 26,110 | 5.3% |
| 3 | est | is | 21,816 | 7.4% |
| 4 | pas | not (second half of ne … pas) | 18,333 | 9.3% |
| 5 | le | the (masculine); him, it | 16,673 | 10.9% |
| 6 | que | that; what; than | 15,974 | 12.5% |
| 7 | la | the (feminine); her, it | 15,165 | 14.1% |
| 8 | vous | you (polite, or more than one person) | 14,142 | 15.5% |
| 9 | tu | you (one person, informal) | 13,937 | 16.9% |
| 10 | un | a, an (masculine); one | 13,704 | 18.2% |
| 11 | c' | it, this, that: ce before a vowel, as in c’est | 13,150 | 19.6% |
| 12 | à | to, at | 12,947 | 20.8% |
| 13 | et | and | 12,919 | 22.1% |
| 14 | il | he, it | 12,649 | 23.4% |
| 15 | a | has | 11,564 | 24.6% |
| 16 | l' | the; him, her, it: le or la before a vowel | 11,550 | 25.7% |
| 17 | ne | not (first half of ne … pas) | 10,506 | 26.8% |
| 18 | les | the (plural); them | 9,574 | 27.7% |
| 19 | j' | I: je before a vowel | 9,369 | 28.7% |
| 20 | en | in; of it, some | 9,193 | 29.6% |
| 21 | on | we; one, people in general | 8,662 | 30.4% |
| 22 | ça | that, it | 8,619 | 31.3% |
| 23 | une | a, an (feminine) | 8,540 | 32.2% |
| 24 | d' | of, from: de before a vowel | 8,180 | 33.0% |
| 25 | ce | this, that; it | 7,962 | 33.8% |
| 26 | qu' | that, what: que before a vowel | 7,920 | 34.6% |
| 27 | pour | for; in order to | 7,779 | 35.3% |
| 28 | ai | have (j’ai, I have) | 7,659 | 36.1% |
| 29 | n' | not: ne before a vowel | 7,229 | 36.8% |
| 30 | des | some; of the (plural) | 5,978 | 37.4% |
| 31 | qui | who, which | 5,235 | 38.0% |
| 32 | mais | but | 5,157 | 38.5% |
| 33 | dans | in, inside | 4,742 | 38.9% |
| 34 | nous | we, us | 4,728 | 39.4% |
| 35 | elle | she, it | 4,641 | 39.9% |
| 36 | me | me, myself | 4,547 | 40.3% |
| 37 | bien | well; really, very | 4,519 | 40.8% |
| 38 | si | if; so; yes (answering a negative question) | 4,429 | 41.2% |
| 39 | du | some; of the (masculine) | 4,202 | 41.7% |
| 40 | y | there; to it | 4,150 | 42.1% |
| 41 | suis | am | 4,095 | 42.5% |
| 42 | non | no | 4,055 | 42.9% |
| 43 | t' | you: te before a vowel | 3,953 | 43.3% |
| 44 | avec | with | 3,950 | 43.7% |
| 45 | tout | all, everything | 3,907 | 44.1% |
| 46 | plus | more; with ne, no longer | 3,817 | 44.4% |
| 47 | mon | my (masculine) | 3,757 | 44.8% |
| 48 | m' | me: me before a vowel | 3,586 | 45.2% |
| 49 | te | you, yourself (informal) | 3,544 | 45.5% |
| 50 | au | to the, at the (masculine) | 3,486 | 45.9% |
| 51 | fait | does, makes; done, made; a fact | 3,315 | 46.2% |
| 52 | moi | me | 3,296 | 46.5% |
| 53 | s' | himself, herself, oneself; if (before il) | 3,261 | 46.9% |
| 54 | oui | yes | 3,148 | 47.2% |
| 55 | va | goes; is going to | 3,110 | 47.5% |
| 56 | était | was | 3,098 | 47.8% |
| 57 | as | have (tu as, you have) | 3,063 | 48.1% |
| 58 | faire | to do, to make | 3,037 | 48.4% |
| 59 | ils | they | 2,972 | 48.7% |
| 60 | sur | on | 2,951 | 49.0% |
| 61 | quoi | what | 2,810 | 49.3% |
| 62 | se | himself, herself, oneself, themselves | 2,727 | 49.6% |
| 63 | comme | like, as | 2,718 | 49.8% |
| 64 | sais | know (je sais, tu sais) | 2,677 | 50.1% |
| 65 | être | to be | 2,336 | 50.3% |
| 66 | veux | want (je veux, tu veux) | 2,322 | 50.6% |
| 67 | ici | here | 2,280 | 50.8% |
| 68 | ma | my (feminine) | 2,252 | 51.0% |
| 69 | toi | you (for emphasis, or after a preposition) | 2,225 | 51.2% |
| 70 | est-ce | is it: opens a question, in est-ce que | 2,223 | 51.5% |
| 71 | dit | says; said | 2,204 | 51.7% |
| 72 | lui | him; to him, to her | 2,167 | 51.9% |
| 73 | votre | your (polite, or more than one person) | 2,128 | 52.1% |
| 74 | es | are (tu es, you are) | 2,082 | 52.3% |
| 75 | pourquoi | why | 2,065 | 52.5% |
| 76 | où | where | 2,022 | 52.7% |
| 77 | là | there | 2,021 | 52.9% |
| 78 | rien | nothing | 2,005 | 53.1% |
| 79 | cette | this, that (feminine) | 1,968 | 53.3% |
| 80 | sont | are (ils sont, they are) | 1,914 | 53.5% |
| 81 | quand | when | 1,880 | 53.7% |
| 82 | peux | can (je peux, tu peux) | 1,868 | 53.9% |
| 83 | dire | to say, to tell | 1,843 | 54.1% |
| 84 | son | his, her, its; a sound | 1,839 | 54.3% |
| 85 | avez | have (vous avez, you have) | 1,737 | 54.4% |
| 86 | vais | go; am going to (je vais) | 1,705 | 54.6% |
| 87 | alors | so, then | 1,704 | 54.8% |
| 88 | ton | your (informal, masculine); a tone | 1,698 | 54.9% |
| 89 | comment | how | 1,661 | 55.1% |
| 90 | par | by, through | 1,632 | 55.3% |
| 91 | ou | or | 1,563 | 55.4% |
| 92 | chose | thing | 1,541 | 55.6% |
| 93 | bon | good; right, OK | 1,519 | 55.7% |
| 94 | ont | have (ils ont, they have) | 1,482 | 55.9% |
| 95 | merci | thank you | 1,481 | 56.0% |
| 96 | juste | just; fair, right | 1,464 | 56.2% |
| 97 | très | very | 1,453 | 56.3% |
| 98 | jamais | never; ever | 1,373 | 56.5% |
| 99 | été | been; summer | 1,359 | 56.6% |
| 100 | aussi | also, too; as | 1,344 | 56.7% |
"Per million words" is how many times the word is said in a million words of subtitles. "Running total" is the share of all dialogue covered by that word and every word above it.
These are word forms, counted as the subtitles write them: est, suis and était are three rows of one verb, and c' is counted apart from ce. That is how a learner first meets them, and it is why this list differs from a dictionary's.
1. Nine of the hundred are one consonant and an apostrophe
French does not let two vowels meet across certain small words. Je ai becomes j'ai, le ami becomes l'ami, ce est becomes c'est. The clipped forms are so common that 9 of them are in the top hundred on their own account:
| Clipped form | Full word | As in |
|---|---|---|
| c' | ce | c'est, it is |
| l' | le or la | l'ami, the friend |
| j' | je | j'ai, I have |
| d' | de | d'accord, agreed |
| qu' | que | qu'il, that he |
| n' | ne | n'est pas, is not |
| t' | te | je t'aime, I love you |
| m' | me | il m'a dit, he told me |
| s' | se, or si before il | s'il vous plaît, please |
Together they are 6.8% of all the words in French dialogue. On the page the apostrophe shows where one word ends and the next begins. In speech nothing does, which is the main reason French is harder to hear than to read; that gap is measured in how many words you need to watch French films.
2. "Not" takes two words, and both are in the top twenty
Pas is number 4 and ne is number 17. Written French makes a negative by putting them round the verb: je ne sais pas, I do not know. In everyday speech the ne is often dropped: je sais pas. The subtitles still write ne or n' 97 times for every hundred pas, because subtitles are written French; real speech uses it less than that.
Ne also pairs with other words in this list: ne … rien is "nothing", ne … jamais "never" and ne … plus "no longer".
3. Two verbs fill twelve places
Être (to be) and avoir (to have) are in the list 12 times between them:
- être: est, suis, était, être, es, sont and été
- avoir: a, ai, as, avez and ont
Those twelve forms are 6.2% of all dialogue. They are irregular, and they are also the helpers that build the everyday past tense: j'ai fait, I did; je suis allé, I went. Learning them thoroughly in the first weeks is the best-spent time in French. The other verbs here, faire, aller (as va and vais), dire, savoir, vouloir and pouvoir, are ranked with every form added up in the 100 most common French verbs.
4. There are three ways to say "you" and two to say "we"
- Tu (number 9) is "you" to one person you know well; vous (number 8) is "you" to a stranger, to someone senior, or to more than one person. Te and toi are forms of tu. Which one French films use more is in formal vs informal you.
- On (number 21) is the everyday "we", with the verb in the same form as for il: on va, we are going. Nous (number 34) is the formal "we", and also "us".
5. There is exactly one ordinary noun
Chose, "thing", at number 92, is the only everyday noun in the hundred. (Fait, son, ton and été can be nouns, "a fact", "a sound", "a tone", "summer", but they are here for their other jobs.) Everything else is grammar: articles, pronouns, prepositions, and forms of a handful of verbs. That is true of every language we have counted, and it explains a common disappointment. A learner who knows these hundred words knows more than half of the words in any French conversation and still cannot follow it, because the half they are missing carries the meaning.
How far do 100 words go?
| The commonest | Share of French dialogue |
|---|---|
| 10 words | 18.2% |
| 25 words | 33.8% |
| 50 words | 45.9% |
| 100 words | 56.7% |
That is a steeper start than Spanish, where the hundred commonest forms cover 50.7%. French leans harder on its smallest words than any other language we measured; the comparison is in which language has the steepest frequency curve. What comes after the first hundred, level by level, is in how many words you need to speak French.
How to learn them
- Learn them in sentences. Most of these words mean little alone. Je ne sais pas teaches four of them at once.
- Learn the clipped forms with their full forms. C'est and ce, j'ai and je: one fact, not two.
- Learn être and avoir whole. All twelve forms above, and the rest of each verb, before anything else.
- Listen from the first day. These are the words that run together in speech. Knowing them on paper is half the job.
The 1,000 most common French words, in the order our course teaches them, are free, and the two-minute French vocabulary test estimates how many you already know. The French course, Verbavia (our own course), teaches from that list with recordings, free on the web. For a quick drill, the random French word generator gives you a word from whichever frequency level you choose. The casual words that come next in real speech, ouais, truc, mec, are counted in French slang you will actually hear, and whether the language as a whole is hard is in is French hard to learn.
The numbers are among those words, and French counts 70, 80 and 90 in its own way: numbers 1 to 100 in French.
Sources
- Lison, P. & Tiedemann, J. (2016). OpenSubtitles2016: Extracting Large Parallel Corpora from Movie and TV Subtitles. Proceedings of LREC 2016. aclanthology.org
- Dave, H. FrequencyWords: frequency lists from OpenSubtitles 2018 (
fr), content licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. github.com. The ranks, rates and running totals are computed byscripts/frequency_basics.pyand printed from its output rather than typed; the meanings are written for this page.