The 500 most common French words

These are 500 of the most commonly used words in spoken French in groups of 25.

The audio was recorded by a native French speaker with a neutral accent.


Notes on the word order

The French word frequency list and word order is only approximate. See common word lists for the reasons.

The words included and order will also vary depending on whether adjectives (for example beau, bel, beau all meaning beautiful) are considered as one word or several. The same applies for verbs.

Verbs are given as infinitive or as first person singular where appropriate as this frequency list is based on the spoken language.

Possessive adjectives such as mon, ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, notre, nos, votre, vos and leur have been removed although they are very high frequency words.

Adjectives are generally given as masculine singular. For example, petit rather than petites.

The top 500 words in other languages

Croatian, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish.