Learn the 500 most common French words: a 7-week flashcard plan

Learn 10 new words a day and you'll have seen the 500 most common French words in 7 weeks. At your busiest, you'll do about 40 reviews a day. These words show up in nearly every sentence, so they pay off fast.

The word list

The French Frequency 500 deck has the 500 most used French words, most common first. It starts with de, je and pas. The front of each card shows the French word. The back gives the pronunciation in IPA, the part of speech and the English meaning, with Parisian audio. The most common French words lists the first 100.

The plan

The review counts below assume you rate every card Good. In Decks, a card you keep getting right comes back after 1 day, 2 days, 5, 12 and 30. Cards you miss come back sooner, so expect more reviews than this.

The French Frequency 500 deck is free in Decks. To follow this plan on your iPhone, get Decks on the App Store.

Each day

1. Do your reviews first.
2. Then learn your 10 new words.
3. Play the audio and say the word out loud. French spelling has a lot of silent letters, and the IPA on the back shows how the word is actually said.

If you miss a day, do the reviews and skip the new words until you're caught up.

Nouns and gender

Many of the top 500 are small words like de, que and dans. For nouns, you also need to know if they're masculine or feminine. See how to learn French gender.

If reviews pile up

If reviews start taking much longer than before, stop adding new words for a few days. What to do when reviews pile up has more. The free plan in Decks has a daily review limit. Premium lets you set your own.

After 500 words

French Sentences has 3,000 sentences, ordered from easiest to hardest, with audio. You'll see the same words in real sentences. Sentence cards vs word cards covers how to mix the two. For verbs, 501 French Verbs has the common ones, with audio.