Lalo

🇫🇷

Top 100 French Words Every Beginner Should Know

Lalo Team·Updated April 17, 2026·3 min read

The most frequent 100 words in French cover a huge portion of everyday conversation. Learning these first gives you the biggest return on your study time.

#WordTranslation
1deof, from
2lethe (masculine singular)
3êtreto be
4etand
5una, one (masculine)
6lathe (feminine singular)
7enin, of it, some
8avoirto have
9quethat, which, what
10ilhe, it
11jeI
12nenot (first part of negation)
13pasnot (second part of negation)
14cethis, that, it
15lesthe (plural)
16seoneself, himself, herself
17quiwho, which
18dessome, of the (plural)
19suron, upon
20pourfor, in order to
21dansin, inside
22auto the, at the (masculine)
23duof the, some (masculine)
24elleshe, her
25avecwith
26sonhis, her, its (masculine)
27toutall, everything, every
28direto say, to tell
29nouswe, us
30maisbut
31faireto do, to make
32onone, we (informal)
33pouvoirto be able to, can
34parby, through, per
35plusmore, plus
36ythere, to it
37allerto go
38vousyou (formal/plural)
39bienwell, good
40siif, so, yes (contradicting)
41commelike, as
42leurtheir, to them
43tuyou (informal)
44àto, at, in
45ouor
46vouloirto want
47savoirto know (a fact)
48hommeman
49venirto come
50grandbig, tall, great
51monmy (masculine)
52meme, myself
53celathat, it
54devoirto have to, must
55where
56aussialso, too
57deuxtwo
58donnerto give
59autreother, another
60tempstime, weather
61trèsvery
62voirto see
63premierfirst
64prendreto take
65encorestill, again, yet
66petitsmall, little
67mêmesame, even, self
68jourday
69sanswithout
70femmewoman, wife
71troisthree
72bongood
73entrebetween, among
74alorsthen, so
75aprèsafter
76trouverto find
77mondeworld, people
78vielife
79annéeyear
80croireto believe
81peulittle, few
82chosething
83payscountry
84parlerto speak, to talk
85depuissince, for (time)
86mainhand
87mettreto put, to place
88sousunder, beneath
89toujoursalways, still
90connaîtreto know (a person/place)
91avantbefore
92foistime (occurrence)
93riennothing
94passerto pass, to spend (time)
95têtehead
96penserto think
97nouveaunew
98maintenantnow
99seulalone, only
100resterest, remainder

Start learning French now

Start learning French now