Basic French Words
These words appear in almost every French sentence. Most of them are short, and several have silent letters that the pronunciation column accounts for.
The first ten
-
oui
wee
-
yes
-
non
non
-
no
-
s'il vous plaît
seel voo PLEH
-
please
-
merci
mehr-SEE
-
thank you
-
peut-être
puh-TEHTR
-
maybe
-
pardon
par-DON
-
sorry
-
bon
bon
-
good
-
mauvais
moh-VEH
-
bad
-
très
treh
-
very
-
un peu
un puh
-
a little
People
-
je
zhuh
-
I
Becomes j' before a vowel: j'ai
-
tu
tuu
-
you
Informal
-
vous
voo
-
you
Formal, and also plural
-
il
eel
-
he
-
elle
el
-
she
-
nous
noo
-
we
-
ils
eel
-
they
Small words that hold a sentence together
-
et
ay
-
and
-
ou
oo
-
or
-
mais
meh
-
but
-
aussi
oh-SEE
-
also
-
avec
ah-VEK
-
with
-
sans
son
-
without
-
ici
ee-SEE
-
here
-
là
lah
-
there
-
maintenant
man-tuh-NON
-
now
Everyday things
-
l'eau
loh
-
water
-
la nourriture
lah noo-ree-TUUR
-
food
-
la maison
lah meh-ZON
-
house
-
l'ami
lah-MEE
-
friend
l'amie for a female friend, said the same
-
grand
gron
-
big
-
petit
puh-TEE
-
small
Two habits worth building early
Every noun is masculine or feminine, and the article carries that information: le for masculine, la for feminine, l' before a vowel. Learn la maison rather than maison.
To make a sentence negative, French wraps the verb in two words: ne before it and pas after. Je ne parle pas français. In speech the ne is often dropped, so you will hear je parle pas.
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