French · Core 1000

The 1,000 most-frequent French words. Covers around 80% of spoken French per Nation (2006); the workhorse vocabulary every learner needs.

Source: Nation (2006) on top-1k coverage of spoken English.

730 words
#Word
1lethe (masculine singular)
2jeI
4una, an (masculine)
6dusome, any (masculine); of the
7lathe (feminine singular)
8deof, from
8vousyou (formal or plural)
9tuyou (informal singular)
9etand
10dansin, inside
11quethat, which, what
12pasnot (in ne...pas negation)
12àto, at, in
13ouiyes
14ilhe, it (masculine)
14êtreto be
15avoirto have
16nenot (first part of negation)
16faireto do, to make
17pouvoirto be able to, can
18vouloirto want
19enin, to (preposition); of it, some (pronoun)
19direto say, to tell
20onone, we, people (informal)
20allerto go
21çathat, it (informal demonstrative pronoun)
21venirto come
24cethis, that, it (demonstrative)
26pourfor, in order to
29dessome, of the (plural indefinite and partitive article; also contraction of de + les)
30quiwho, which, that (relative pronoun); who? (interrogative)
31maisbut
33nouswe, us
34elleshe, her, it (feminine)
35meme, to me, myself (first-person singular object pronoun)
36bienwell, good, very
37siif; so (intensifier); yes (contradicting a negative statement)
39ythere, to it, about it (adverbial pronoun)
41nonno, not
43avecwith
44toutall, every, quite, everything
45plusmore; no more (in negation ne...plus)
46monmy (masculine singular possessive)
48teyou, to you, yourself (second-person singular object pronoun)
49auto the, at the (contraction of a + le)
51moime, I (stressed tonic first-person pronoun)
58ilsthey (masculine or mixed group)
59suron, on top of, about, over (preposition); also 'sure, certain' as the adjective sûr/sûre
60quoiwhat (interrogative and emphatic)
61sehimself, herself, itself, themselves (reflexive pronoun)