The largest French dictionaries contain up to 100,000 words. That’s a lot of memorizing. The good news is that native speakers use around 1,500 words to communicate on a daily basis. That’s not to say they don’t know more words, but it does mean they don’t need those extra words.
About a year ago, I started wondering how many French words I actually use in my life and work in Luxembourg. Then I started to write them down to see how much I had learned. You know what I found out? I only need 500 words to speak everyday French, including at work.
That’s a major revelation.
What if new learners had a list of these words? Of course, that doens’t mean you would be able to use them all immediately. You need to learn the grammar, the conjugations, and accent–your good ol’ Fundamental French. But you could focus your study around these words. As you move forward in your language learning journey, you could use these 500 words as a running guideline for study.
Download the eBook!
I compiled the 500 words you need to speak every day French in this eBook. You can purchase it here.