Vocabulary priorities
How many words?
Research in language teaching suggests that around 1,000 to 2,000 frequent words are enough for simple conversation, and that you need to know 95 to 98% of the words in a text to understand it without a dictionary.
Priorities
- function words (articles, pronouns, prepositions);
- the most frequent verbs (être, avoir, aller, faire, dire, pouvoir, vouloir, savoir, voir, venir, prendre);
- vocabulary for your own needs (work, study, hobbies);
- common expressions.
How to learn a word
- with its article (le or la);
- in a sentence;
- with its construction (penser à, avoir besoin de);
- with its pronunciation;
- reviewing it at regular intervals.
See also (in French) lexique.wiki, synonymes.wiki and expression.wiki.
🇫🇷 Research and writing: My French
This guide was researched and written by the team at my-french.com, a platform for learning French as a foreign language and the owner of learnfrench.wiki. Put theory into practice: lessons from A1 to C2, quizzes, games, a verb conjugator and a community of learners at my-french.com.