French has 10 articles here. The 500 phrases cover a first month in France, the mistakes page covers what goes wrong when two languages look alike, and the statistics page counts what the French half of the corpus holds, level by level and theme by theme. The rest are frequency lists and themed vocabulary.
Start with the 500 if you are moving or travelling, and with the verbs if you are studying, because a small set of French verbs carries most of what you say in a day. French is thinner here than Spanish, and the gap is the situation pages. A restaurant script, a first week at work and a visit to the doctor all exist in Spanish and are still to be written in French. Those are the ones we would write next. What is here goes all the way through: the animal run covers A to Z, and the transport page lists every word we have rather than a sample of five.
Where to start
- The 500 French phrases you actually needthe list for a first month, in the order a day happens.
- French mistakes English speakers makethe traps that come from two languages looking alike.
- The most common French verbs, ranked the way you'll actually meet thema small set of verbs carries most of what you say in a day.
- French vocabulary, by the numberswhat the pair actually holds, level by level and theme by theme.
Start here
The pages we made for French itself: the phrase list, the traps, and the numbers behind the pair.
The 500 French phrases you actually need
500 French phrases in three lanes, survive, travel and work, grouped by the situations of a day: the bakery, the métro, the pharmacy, the first meeting.
The Vocabcord 500 · FrenchFrench for your first 48 hours in France
The French for bonjour at the door, the platform board, a forfait and an eSIM, the tabac, the carafe of tap water, the duty pharmacy and the guichet.
The Vocabcord 500 · FrenchFrench mistakes English speakers make
Entrée is the starter and un demi is a small beer: the French phrases that are correct and still land wrong, from the notes in our 500-phrase list.
Corpus statisticsFrench vocabulary, by the numbers
Every French entry the app ships, counted by CEFR level and by theme, computed from the pack manifests themselves.
Words and frequency
Which words to spend your time on, ranked from our own corpus.
How many words in French? The word count by CEFR level
How many words in French do you actually need? See the count by CEFR level, A1 to C2, and how the numbers compare.
French · A1 to C2Most common French adjectives, by frequency
The most common French adjectives are bon, mauvais, grand, petit, nouveau, and vieux. All 272 corpus-ranked describing entries, A1 to C2, with audio.
French · A1 to A2Most common French nouns, ranked by frequency
The most common French nouns are livre, ordinateur, clé, and tasse. See all 73 corpus-ranked object nouns, A1 to A2, each with audio.
French · A1 to C2The most common French verbs, ranked the way you'll actually meet them
The most common French verbs are être, avoir, faire, aller, pouvoir, and vouloir. Corpus data ranks the whole ladder: 110 verbs at A1 down to 12 at C2, with native audio.
Situations and themes
One situation or one theme per page, taken to the end of the list.
Reference
The closed systems: the calendar, the clock, the numbers, the word classes. Pages you look something up in.
Animals that start with A in French (and B through Z)
Animals that start with A in French include l'abeille (bee), l'araignée (spider) and l'aigle (eagle). The list runs B to Z, with audio.
French · A1Days of the week in French: lundi to dimanche
Days of the week in French: lundi, mardi, mercredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi, dimanche. Hear each with audio; the French week starts on lundi.
The rest of the site
The six phrase lists share one page: The Vocabcord 500 says what they are, how they were written and how to cite them. The corpus statistics count all six pairs at once, and the methodology page explains how a phrase gets a level and a theme. Teachers can run a list as a scheme of work from the teachers page. Everything else we publish is on the blog.
If a translation, a level or a note on any of these pages is wrong, tell us on the support page. Corrections from people who live in the language are the only way this stays honest.