Ready to start learning French but not sure where to begin? Or perhaps you're a semi-beginner looking to reinforce and expand your skills? This book is designed for you!

It presents an essential list of the 900 most common French words, carefully organized into five practical categories:

The 500 most common nouns: Everyday vocabulary used to describe the world around you, including words for work, school, family, and daily life.

The 130 most common verbs: Action words that will help you engage in everyday conversations.

The 130 most common adjectives: Descriptive words that make it easier to talk about people, places, and things.

The 80 most common adverbs: Words to add detail and nuance to your conversations.

The 25 most common grammatical words: Key connectors and prepositions that will help you link ideas and structure your thoughts.

The 35 most common expressions: Practical phrases for everyday interactions.

Real-life vocabulary

The words in this book were carefully selected based on their usage in everyday conversations in 2025. These are the words you’ll actually hear and use in real-life situations, helping you speak and understand modern French more effectively. Each word is paired with its English translation and an example sentence, chosen to demonstrate the practical use of the word in context. This method allows you to see how words connect and reinforces your learning by showing how they fit into everyday conversations.

Carefully crafted

Rather than simply focusing on easy-to-learn words, the words in this book were selected based on their frequency of use in contemporary French. You won’t find lists of fruits or animals; instead, you'll learn the most commonly used words in daily life. With these 900 words, you’ll be able to describe your environment and express your emotions, desires, fears, and expectations in a wide range of situations—whether at school, at work, while shopping or dining out, meeting friends, or having a conversation on the phone. These words also include commonly used slang terms, but vulgar words are excluded.

Practical examples

Carefully crafted example sentences are designed to incorporate and re-use the vocabulary from the 900 words, highlighting phrases that are frequently used in everyday French conversations. These examples not only demonstrate how the words fit naturally into context, but also help you understand their practical application in real-life situations. By memorizing these sentences, you’ll be able to confidently re-use them in your own conversations, making your French sound more authentic and fluent. These sentences serve as building blocks for your language learning, allowing you to express yourself clearly and naturally in a variety of common situations.

Written by Romain Rannou, the author of the French in Paris series—a comprehensive five-book method for learning French—this book is perfect for beginners or semi-beginners who want to confirm their understanding and deepen their vocabulary.

Start building your French skills today with The 900 Most Common Words in French, and take your language learning to the next level!