A French frequency list can be a game-changer when learning the language.
Instead of spending hours and hours studying hundreds or thousands of vocabulary words, you can start with the most common.
It’s the more efficient way to learn the language and improve your comprehension.
In this post, you’ll get 500 of the most frequently used French words, along with four other places to find great French frequency lists for your studies.
A French frequency list is a curated compilation of words ranked by their frequency of use in the French language. It serves as a strategic tool for language learners by highlighting the most commonly used words in written and spoken French.
By prioritizing the study of words based on their occurrence in everyday communication, you can streamline your efforts, focusing on the essentials for effective communication and comprehension.
Using a French frequency list enhances vocabulary acquisition, accelerates language proficiency and provides a structured approach to mastering the language.
Whether you’re a beginner building your basic vocabulary or a more advanced student looking to fill in the gaps, the following three online resources are well-suited to optimal learning. As a bonus, they’re all completely free!
AnkiWeb offers a flashcard deck containing the 5,000 most frequently used French words and their English translations conveniently sorted by order of frequency.
They come with the part of speech, frequency, example sentences in English and French and audio recordings of the words and example sentences.
After downloading the flashcards, you can make personal changes to them like adding notes or flagging difficult words. To download these flashcards, you’ll need to download the Anki program first, which is free and easy to do.
This PDF list of 5,000 common French words was compiled from written and spoken resources by several professors at Brigham Young University.
You can search the list by frequency, alphabetically or by themes like animals or verbs of communication. There are also tons of helpful example sentences included.
This frequency list is one of the easiest to read as the entries are exactly as you’d expect to find them in a dictionary, with English translations of both the words and example sentences.
This website is run by Le Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale (the National Ministry of French Education) and contains lists of the 1,500 most frequently used words.
The lists contain the same information but are organized differently, such as by alphabetical order and order of frequency. English definitions aren’t provided, but the lists are still helpful for knowing what to study.
The lists are available to be downloaded as Excel spreadsheets, PDFs or Open Office documents and each contains additional information on the words such as part of speech, frequency, etc.
Now that you have some great resources to get you started, try to master the most commonly used words on the lists above before moving on to the rest.
Use them daily, practice with a good French flashcard app and look out for them being used in context in French conversation and media.
Soon these French frequency lists will be secured in your memory and become part of your natural vocabulary!
If you like learning French on your own time and from the comfort of your smart device, then I'd be remiss to not tell you about FluentU.
FluentU has a wide variety of great content, like interviews, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:
FluentU brings native French videos with reach. With interactive captions, you can tap on any word to see an image, definition and useful examples.
For example, if you tap on the word "crois," you'll see this:
Practice and reinforce all the vocabulary you've learned in a given video with learn mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning, and play the mini-games found in our dynamic flashcards, like "fill in the blank."
All throughout, FluentU tracks the vocabulary that you’re learning and uses this information to give you a totally personalized experience. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned.
What is a French Frequency List? A French frequency list is a curated compilation of words ranked by their frequency of use in the French language. It serves as a strategic tool for language learners by highlighting the most commonly used words in written and spoken French.
The more words you know, the better. In fact, it's estimated that you need to know around 5,000 words to be fluent in French, although native speakers will often know up to 30,000! That's a lot of words, making vocabulary learning a bit of a numbers game.
Consistent Language Exposure: Many languages teachers and speakers emphasise the importance of frequent and consistent exposure to the target language. ...
Practice Past Papers: Familiarise yourself with the exam format by working through past papers.
Akorbi recommends that a complete beginner typically has about 250-500 words under his or her language belt, with the necessary tools to form complete sentences. With this knowledge of words, they will also be able to get through introductions, answer simple questions, and hold basic conversations.
People who know 250 to 500 words are beginners. Those who know 1,000 to 3,000 words can carry on everyday conversations. Knowing 4,000 to 10,000 words makes people advanced language users while knowing more than 10,000 words puts them at the fluent or native-speaker levels.
B2. B2 is the level where a student is considered fluent since their knowledge is advanced but not proficient. This level requires 230 hours of study or eight sessions, meaning one year of complete study (after completing the intermediate).
However, for many English speakers, Spanish is often considered slightly easier to learn than French. Here's why: Phonetics and pronunciation: Spanish has a MUCH more straightforward phonetic system, with consistent letter-to-sound correspondence, making it easier to pronounce words correctly.
C1 level: 700 to 800 hours of learning. At this level, you might be able to communicate in most situations, being fluent in French. C2 level: 1000 to 1200 hours of learning. This level is focused on mastering the language, making you able to communicate in really specific situations and fields of study.
Introduction: My name is Clemencia Bogisich Ret, I am a super, outstanding, graceful, friendly, vast, comfortable, agreeable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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