The 500 French phrases you actually need

Most French phrase lists stop at the café and leave you mute at the pharmacy, the landlord's door and your first team meeting. This is the list we would hand a friend moving to France: 500 phrases in three lanes, survive (190), travel (170) and work (140), grouped into 17 situations in the order a first week throws them at you. Five hundred is the size at which you stop reciting and start choosing, and French keeps handing you choices: la carte or le menu, tu or vous. Each phrase is the form a polite adult uses with a stranger; the note beside it flags the register, the regional word, the trap. The page will not teach you grammar; it gives you the sentences while the grammar catches up.

How to read this page

Each table has three columns: the French, the English and a note. Read the note first; it says what the translation cannot, and blank means the translation is the whole story. The French is written the way it is spoken, so Vous venez d'où ? rather than the inverted textbook form, and the space before every question mark and exclamation mark is deliberate: French puts one there.

We use vous throughout, the form a newcomer is safest with, and the notes mark the lines where colleagues would say tu. Two lines in the email section, Bonjour Monsieur, and Cordialement, keep their trailing comma because they are written formulas.

Five hundred is too many to sit down with. In the app, one phrase plays each time the phone is plugged in, and that few-second event is the whole session; a few plug-ins a day carry a person through this list over a season. Print the page or save it as a PDF.

First contact: greeting, thanking, apologising

Say Bonjour before anything else, to the baker, the bus driver, the préfecture clerk. It is the one phrase on this page that changes how the next five minutes go, and walking up to a counter without it reads as rude. Then come the pairs people mix up: Pardon is for the bump in the métro, and Excusez-moi opens a request and is never an apology afterwards. Comment allez-vous ? is missing by choice: with a stranger, Bonjour on its own is the whole greeting. Learn Bonne journée before any question here; it closes every shop exchange.

The repair kit: not understanding, slowing things down

The two to learn first are Désolé, mon français n'est pas très bon and Plus lentement, s'il vous plaît. The first makes people slow down without being asked; the second asks. Vous parlez anglais ? is in the list on one condition: say it after Bonjour. Asked first, it says you would rather not be in French at all, and the answer is often non. We cut Je ne parle pas français too. Said in French it contradicts itself, and it invites the person to give up on you; Je parle un peu français gets you slower French, which is what you came for.

Getting around: directions, trains, buses, taxis

Forty lines, the largest section, because a first week is mostly spent getting somewhere. Un ticket, s'il vous plaît buys the bus, métro or tram; the train takes a billet, as in Un aller-retour pour Lyon, s'il vous plaît. Un plan is the city map and une carte is the road map or the menu, so Vous pouvez me montrer sur le plan ? gets you the right paper. The trap is Cette place est libre ? French asks whether the seat is free, the reverse of the English question, so oui means sit down.

Hotel and the first place you stay

Booking happens online now, so this section is mostly about what happens after the door closes: six of the 28 lines are complaints, from Il n'y a pas d'eau chaude to La clim ne marche pas. The ground floor is the rez-de-chaussée and the premier étage is one flight up, so Chambre 204, c'est à quel étage ? is worth asking before you carry a suitcase upstairs. For a rented flat the phrase that matters is C'est quoi le code de la porte ? Most buildings have a digicode, and the code arrives by text.

Eating out: café, restaurant, bakery

This is the one people get wrong. La carte, s'il vous plaît asks for the menu. Le menu is a fixed-price set meal, so Vous avez un menu du jour ? asks about the chalkboard lunch deal, and mixing the two up gets you a polite pause and the other thing. Water is the second trap: Une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît brings free tap water, while de l'eau may bring a bottle and a line on the bill. There is no list of dishes here; you point at the carte. Drill L'addition, s'il vous plaît, because nobody brings the bill unprompted.

Shopping and paying: shops, market, card, cash

Two phrases keep a shop visit calm. Je regarde, merci answers Je peux vous aider ? and staff leave you alone. Je vais réfléchir is the polite no: you are leaving without buying, and nobody expects you back. Learn it before Je le prends, because you will say it more often. At the till, C'est combien ? prices one item and Ça fait combien ? asks for the total, and the three words for a receipt are three pieces of paper: ticket de caisse from a shop, reçu for the card slip, facture for the tax invoice. C'est ouvert le dimanche ? is here because the answer is usually no.

Health: pharmacy, doctor, saying what hurts

One frame covers most of a doctor's visit: J'ai mal à plus the part, so J'ai mal à la tête, J'ai mal au ventre, and when the word escapes you, J'ai mal ici with a finger is a complete answer to the question every doctor opens with. We did not add an anatomy list; the finger does that job. At the pharmacy the surprise is that paracetamol sits behind the counter, so Je voudrais du paracétamol has to be said out loud, and asking for Doliprane by name gets the box every pharmacist reaches for.

Emergencies: help, police, lost things, home breakdowns

Twenty lines, and short ones: under stress you will manage the phrases you can say in two seconds. Au secours ! and Appelez une ambulance ! come first, with the numbers: 15 for the SAMU, 18 for the fire brigade, 17 for the police, 112 for everything. The operator wants the address before the story, street then number in the French order, so Je suis rue de Rivoli, au numéro 20 is worth saying aloud with your own street in it. Je suis enfermé dehors comes with an instruction worth printing in red: call the number on your home insurance, and leave the locksmith sticker in the hallway alone.

Phone and internet: SIM, data, calls

Buying a SIM takes three phrases: Je voudrais une carte SIM, Un forfait avec internet, s'il vous plaît, and the question that saves you a year of payments, C'est sans engagement ? Avec engagement ties you in for 12 or 24 months. When you give your number, read it in pairs the way Mon numéro, c'est le 06 12 34 56 78 shows, because a French listener writes two digits at a time. And Allô ? exists only on the phone; said to a face it gets a laugh.

Admin, the flat and paperwork: bank, landlord, forms

No phrasebook has this section, and it is the one that matters most in month two. Two documents run a newcomer's life in France. The justificatif de domicile is asked for everywhere, so Vous avez un justificatif de domicile ? is a question to be ready for with a PDF on your phone. The RIB is the sheet with your IBAN, so Voici mon RIB is said to every employer and landlord. The line we would not skip is Je dois déclarer mes impôts ? The answer is yes for every resident, every spring, even with no French income.

First day at work: introductions, the building, the rhythm

Ask On peut se tutoyer ? in the first hour. Most offices are on tu by lunchtime, and the person who keeps saying vous to the next desk comes across as cold rather than correct. Enchanté, moi c'est Anna is the introduction that fits a tu office. On mange à quelle heure ? is a real question because lunch is a real hour, often 12:30 to 14:00, and eating at your desk looks odd. The send-off is Bon courage ! It goes to anyone heading into a shift or a task; Bonne chance is for exams and lottery tickets, and colleagues hear the difference.

Meetings and video calls

Work runs on the 24-hour clock. On a une réunion à 14 heures is quatorze heures out loud, and deux heures means 2 am or a vague afternoon. Learn Si j'ai bien compris... before anything else here. It lets you restate what was just decided and be corrected without admitting you were lost, and a newcomer is lost in a French meeting more often than they let on. Two lines are pure office French: On fait le point demain ? for the quick status check, and On se cale un créneau ? to lock in a slot.

Email and messages: what you say and what you write

Bonjour Monsieur, opens most work emails now, comma included; Cher Monsieur is stiffer. Cordialement, closes them. For the email itself the word is mail: Je vous envoie un mail is what everyone says, while courriel is the official word and the Quebec one. C'est noté is the two-word reply that ends a thread politely, and we would rather you used it than a paragraph of thanks. The last two lines switch to tu on purpose: Tu as vu mon message ? is chat, and chat is tu with nearly everyone.

Asking for help, admitting mistakes, deadlines

Learn C'est pour quand ? first. Tasks in a French office land without a date, and this is the plain way to get one; the joke answer is hier. The register moves around in this section: Tu as deux minutes ? is tu because you ask it of a peer, and the note gives the vous version for your boss. Je suis débordé is the socially safe way to refuse more work, taken at face value in a way a flat no would never be. Vous pouvez jeter un œil ? asks for a quick look with no obligation attached.

Pay, leave and the contract

Two terms here are said as letters or clipped. C'est un CDI ou un CDD ? is cé-dé-i, and the CDI is the contract landlords and banks want to see. Heures supplémentaires is never said in full; Je fais des heures sup is the only form out loud. C'est brut ou net ? is the question to ask before any arithmetic, because job ads quote brut and net is roughly a fifth less. On time off the verb is always poser, as in Je voudrais poser des congés, and five weeks a year is the legal floor.

Small talk with strangers and colleagues

The English opener is the wrong first question in France. Vous faites quoi dans la vie ? is in the table because you will be asked it, so let them ask first: many French people find the job question nosy early on. Weather and place are safe, so the section opens with Il fait beau aujourd'hui and Vous êtes d'ici ? while Il y a du monde aujourd'hui works in any queue. The adjective to carry everywhere is inside C'était sympa: sympa covers people, evenings and places, and it does more work than twenty precise adjectives you never reach for.

Feelings and opinions

Hunger, thirst and heat take avoir in French, and the third one is the trap. J'ai chaud means you are hot; je suis chaud means you are up for it, and je suis chaude is worse. Say it right once in August and it stays right. On opinions, French softens the no. Je n'aime pas trop is the polite dislike, and a flat je n'aime pas lands harder than the English. Ça me plaît is the safe like for things and places; j'aime on its own, said about a person, means love. C'est nul stays at tu level: fine about a film, risky about a colleague's work.

What we left out, and what to add

Proverbs were the first cut. Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid is charming and useless in front of a bank clerk. The book-on-the-table sentence teaches a preposition and gets you nothing at a counter. Slang stayed out because verlan dates faster than a phone contract. We also cut every phrase whose only job is to show a tense or an inversion; Comment vous appelez-vous ? is in a note as the form for a stage, and the spoken order is what you will hear back.

Add the vocabulary of your own case; the frames here are built to take it. Drop your allergy into Je suis allergique aux noix, your street into the emergency address and your job into Je travaille dans l'informatique. The section we are least sure of is small talk. It varies more by person and region than any other, and its 36 lines are a floor.

How to make 500 phrases stick

Honest arithmetic first. A phone gets plugged in a few times a day, so at one phrase per plug-in this list is a season's work. Each plug-in plays one line: the French, a pause, the English, a pause, the French again. The sampler that picks the line weights every phrase by how long ago you heard it, on a five-day scale, and treats a phrase you have never heard as about twenty days overdue, so the first weeks are mostly new lines and the later ones circle back to what you are about to forget. Nothing counts your days; the charger does the asking.

These 500 are ours, and they sit apart from the 4,708-entry French vocabulary corpus in the app, whose counts by level are on the French corpus statistics page. The collection becomes a pack with audio later. Until then, print the page.

Common questions

How many French phrases do you need to get by in France?

Fewer than 500 for a holiday and more than 500 for a job. The 190 survive-lane phrases are the floor, from Bonjour to Je dois déclarer mes impôts ? The 170 travel lines cover a trip and the 140 work lines a first month in an office. Past 500 the list turns into vocabulary, and vocabulary is a different job.

Should I learn tu or vous first?

Vous. Every phrase here uses it by default, and tu to the wrong person costs more than vous to a friend. Then learn On peut se tutoyer ? and ask it in your first hour at work.

Is this French for France or for Quebec?

France. Quebec is noted only where the everyday word differs, as with courriel for an email where France says mail.

What is the difference between la carte and le menu?

La carte is the list of dishes. Le menu is a fixed-price set meal, and Vous avez un menu du jour ? asks for the weekday lunch version. Ask for la carte to choose and le menu for the deal.

What is the fastest way to memorise them?

Say them in a real place. Bonne journée sticks after one bakery, and C'est pour quand ? after one task that arrived without a date. Then hear them a few times a day: in the app a phrase plays at each plug-in, and the ones you have not heard for a while are the likeliest to come round. Reading the page once, top to bottom, is the slowest way.