Most Common French Words

What are the most common French words?

The most commonly used words in French are: Oui (yes), non (no), merci (thank you), je (I), tu/vous (you), le/la/les (the), un, une des (a, an and some), le/la/les (it, them), et (and) and mais (but).

Learning the most common words is the first step to learning to speak fluently. Rather than just providing a list of top-100 words without any structure, we’ve created a list based on language sub-areas such as common adjectives, prepositions and verbs. We’ve also broken our list down into noun groups such family, clothing and much more.

Top 10 French words in a nutshell

These are the top ten frequently most used words in the French language:

Oui yes
Non no
Merci thank you
Je I
Tu/vous you
le, la, les the
Un, une, des a, an, some
le, la, les it, them
Et and
Mais but

Example sentences with the most common words:

Oui, je parle français. Yes, I speak French.
Non, je ne parle pas français. No, I don’t speak French.
Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much.
Je mange le pain. I eat the bread.
Tu manges la salade. You seat the salad.
Vous mangez la pizza. You eat the pizza.
Le garçon chante. The boy sings.
La fille nage. The girl swims.
Les enfants chantent. The children sing.
Un garçon écrit. A boy writes.
Une fille dort. A girl sleeps.
Des enfant étudient. Some kids study.
Je le/la mange. I eat it.
Je les mange. I eat them.
Marc et Sylvie. Marc and Sylvie.
Il aime Sylvie mais il est trop timide. He likes Sylvie but he’s too shy.

How to say “not in French

In French, to say “not”, wrap ne…pas around a verb. For example, “Je ne parle pas français” (I don’t speak French).

This is called negation. This page covers French negation in detail.

Ne…pas not

Articles: words for “the” and “a, an”

The articles in French (words for the and a/an) must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

The words for the are called the definite article and the words for a/some are called the indefinite article. This page explains these French articles in detail.

Le the (masculine)
La the (feminine)
Les the (plural)
L’ the (comes before noun starting with a vowel)
Un a or an (masculine)
Une a or an (feminine)
Des some (plural)

Personal pronouns

One of the first steps in learning French is to learn the personal pronouns. These refer to words for people (I, you, he, she, etc.).

This page covers French personal pronouns in detail.

Je I
Tu you
Il he
Elle she
On one
Nous we
Vous you (formal)
Ils they (all men or mixed company)
Elles they (female only)

Stressed pronouns

A second kind of pronoun that’s use for people is is called a “stressed pronoun”. These are words like me, him and her in English.

This page covers French stressed pronouns.

Moi me
Toi you
Lui him
Elle her
Nous us
Vous you
Eux them
Elles them (female only)

Most common verbs

Verbs are action words. For example, “I go” or “I eat”. In the list below we included 10 commonly used verbs in the first-person singular (I) form.

This lesson covers the most common French verbs in detail.

Je suis I am
J’ai I have
Je fais I make, I do
Je vais I go
Je parle I speak
Je mange I eat
Je sais I know
Je veux I want
Je dois I must
Je peux I can

Words for politeness and greetings

It’s essential to learn words for politeness and greetings. Bonjour means hello and au revoir means good-bye.

Bonjour Hello, good morning
Au revoir goodbye
Merci thank you
De rien you’re welcome
Salut hi and bye
Bonsoir good evening
Bonne nuit good night
S’il vous plaît please (formal)
S’il te plaît please (informal)

French numbers

Learning to count to ten is essential for any beginner. Learning these most basic numbers will help you to ask how much things cost, tell time and say the date.

This lesson covers the French numbers 1-100 in detail.

Un one
Deux two
Trois three
Quatre four
Cinq five
Six six
Sept seven
Huit eight
Neuf nine
Dix ten

Connecting words

Connecting words or conjunctions are words that are used to join two parts of sentence together.

Et and
Ou or
Si if
Mais but
Quand when
Que that
Qui who, that
Comme like, as
Parceque because

French prepositions

A preposition is a word that introduces another part of a sentences. For example, “in the bathroom”, “at the movies” or “with mom”.

Speed up your learning with an app

Many of our students have greatly enhanced their learning by using an app. On these pages we've examined the top-30 apps for learning French. On this pages we've written comprehensive reviews for Pimsleur (great for people struggling with pronunciation), Rosetta Stone and FrenchPod101 (both great for visual learners).

The two most commonly used French prepositions are à (to/at) and de (from/of). This page covers the French preposition à in detail and this page covers the French preposition de.

À to, at
De from, of
Avec with
Pour four
Par by
Sans without
Contre against
Dans in, inside of
En in
Sur on, on top of
Chez at the home, place of
Avant before
Après after

French adverbs

An adverb is a word that’s used to describe how you do something. For example, “I run quickly” or “You speak slowly“.

Bien well
Mauvais poorly
Vite quickly
Rapidement quickly
Lentement slowly
Heureusement fortunately
Seulement only
Rarement rarely, seldom
Souvent often
Beaucoup a lot
Un peu a little, a bit
Trop too, too much

Family members

Learning the words for family members is essential for getting to know people.

This lesson covers French family vocabulary in detail.

le père father
la mère mother
le frère brother
la soeur sister
le fils son
la fille daughter
le bébé baby
l’enfant child
le grand-père grandfather
la grand-mère grandmother
le cousin, la cousine cousin
l’oncle uncle
la tante aunt

French adjectives

Adjectives are describing words. For example, “a big house” or “an intelligent girl”.

The French rules for adjectives are very complex as the adjective must agree in number and gender with the noun (the thing) it’s describing (talking about).

The -e in parenthesis below indicates the feminine form of the adjective.

This page covers French adjectives and rules in detail.

grand(e) big
petit(e) little
bon (bonne) good
mauvais(e) bad
beau (belle) beautiful
joli(e) pretty
jeune young
vieux (vielle) old
heureux (heureuse) happy
triste sad

French colors

Learning the colors is very important for describing the things we see. Colors are also adjectives as they are description words.

This page covers French colors in detail.

Rouge red
Orange orange
Jaune yellow
Blanc white
Noir black
Bleu blue
Vert green

Question words

Question words are words used for seeking information when asking a question. For example: Who, what, where, when and why.

Quel (Quelle) which
Qui who
Quoi what
Où where
Quand when
Why pourquoi

Words about time

Words about time include days of the week, months and times of day.

The following is just a sample of these words. These pages cover these words in detail: Telling time and months and days of the week,

Aujourd’hui today
Hier yesterday
L’heure hour
Le temps time
Quelle heure what time
Midi noon
Minuit midnight
Lundi Monday
Mardi Tuesday
Mercredi Wednesday
Jeudi Thursday
Vendredi Friday
Dimanche Sunday

Food and drinks vocabulary

It’s nice to learn a few food words. This page offers a very complete list of French food vocabulary.

le pain bread
la viande meat
le lait milk
le fromage cheese
le poulet chicken
la salade salade
la pomme apple
la pomme de terre potatoe
le riz rice
le gâteau cake
l’eau water
le café coffee

Names of places

It’s important to know how to say the names of places. Here’s a list of frequently used words.

le pays country
l’état state
la ville city
le village town
l’école school
l’église church
la maison house
le bureau office
le supermarché supermarket
la poste post office
la bibliothèque library

Clothing words

Here’s a brief list of some clothing words. This page covers clothing vocabulary in detail.

la chemise shirt
le pantelon pants
la jupe skirt
la robe dress
le chemisier blouse
le pull sweater
les chaussures shoes
les chaussettes socks

Conclusion

We hope we have helped to provide a comprehensive overview of the most common French words. We have summarized our top-10 list in the following table.

French	English	Pronunciation and comments
Oui	Yes	Pronounced "wee". "Mais oui!" Means of course!
Non	No	Pronounced "nɔ̃" or nasal "on". Non, je n'aime pas le fromage. No, I don't like cheese.
Merci	Thank you	Pronounced "mer-see". Merci beaucoup means "Thank you very much".
Je	I	Pronounced "ʒə" or "juh". Je parle français! I speak French!
Tu/vous	You (informal), You (plural and formal)	Tu = ty, vous = vu or vou. This page covers pronunciation of tu.
le, la, les	The	Pronounced "luh", "lah" and "lay". When you want to say "the" all nouns require one of these words.
Un, une, des	A, an, some	Pronounced "uhn", "yn" and "day". Nouns require these articles as well.
le, la, les	It, them	Pronounced "luh", "la" and "les". These are covered in this object pronoun lesson.
Et	And	Pronounced "ay" and never "et". Et never has a liason in French.
Mais	But	Pronounced "may". Liason rule can apply to mais.

More lessons:

More resources:

Top 1000 French words

If you've found this post useful you might want to considering looking at our post covering the best apps for learning French. We've looked a total 33 apps and have written comprehensive reviews of Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and FrenchPod101.

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David Issokson

David Issokson is a lifelong language enthusiast. His head is swimming with words and sounds as he speaks over six languages. Of all the languages he speaks, he's the most passionate about French! David has helped hundreds of students to improve their French in his private online lessons. When procrastinating working on his site, FrenchLearner.com, David enjoys his time skiing and hiking in Teton Valley, Idaho.

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