It depends on what you want to read. Paul Nation's research on English puts 98% coverage of novels at 8,000–9,000 word families, and speech at 6,000–7,000. Stories written for learners need far fewer. Contos moves readers up a level at 500 known words (A2), 1,500 (B1) and 4,000 (B2), counting each word form separately.
- Novels (English research)
- 8,000–9,000 word families for 98% coverage
- Speech (English research)
- 6,000–7,000 word families
- Contos level-ups
- A2 at 500, B1 at 1,500, B2 at 4,000 known words
- Free French chapters in Contos
- 96 chapters, 27,234 words, 3,733 different word forms
- A1 forms, read at A2
- Cover about 81% of the running words
What counts as a French word?
A vocabulary count is only as precise as its unit. Researchers use three:
- Word form: each spelling counts once, so parle, parlait and parlé are three.
- Lemma: the dictionary form with its inflections, so every form of parler counts as one.
- Word family: a lemma plus its relatives, so parler, parole and parleur might count as one.
The gap between these units is wide in French. In the free chapters of the Contos French library alone, parler appears in 10 forms (parle, parler, parlé, parlait, parlent, parla, parlaient, parlant, parlez, parlons) and regarder in more than a dozen. Elision adds a French twist: l'immeuble is two words joined by an apostrophe, and our counts treat l' and immeuble separately.
Contos counts the word forms you know, because that is what you meet on the page. Its 500-word step to A2 is therefore stricter than 500 lemmas or families would be.
How many words do you need for each level?
The best-known figures come from Paul Nation's 2006 study of English. If you need to know 98% of the running words to read without help, novels and newspapers take 8,000–9,000 word families and spoken English 6,000–7,000. These are English numbers, so treat them as an order of magnitude for French; the method page on vocabulary size discusses where the 98% figure comes from.
Learner stories need much less. To see how vocabulary builds level by level, we took every word form in the free chapters below each level and measured how much of that level's free chapters they cover.
| Level | Contos moves you up at | Different word forms in the free chapters | Covered by every form from the levels below |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Start here | 788 | — |
| A2 | 500 known words | 1,165 | About 81% (the 788 A1 forms) |
| B1 | 1,500 known words | 1,836 | About 78% (1,455 A1–A2 forms) |
| B2 | 4,000 known words | 2,233 | About 84% (2,626 A1–B1 forms) |
Read the right-hand column as "what is left to learn". A reader who knew every A1 form would still meet about one unfamiliar word in five at A2. B1 is the hardest step on this measure, because it is where past tenses such as avait and regardait arrive in numbers. That gap is where new words come from, and it is why tapping in context matters more than finishing a list first.
Which French words should you learn first?
Learn by frequency. Across all 96 free chapters of the Contos French library, the 100 most common word forms make up about 55% of the running words, and the top 500 about 78%. The leaders are the words every sentence needs: elle, la, de, le, il, à, est. Our list of your first 100 French words is counted from the beginner chapters.
For a general reference, Deryle Lonsdale and Yvon Le Bras's A Frequency Dictionary of French (Routledge) ranks the 5,000 most frequent words in a 23-million-word corpus of written and spoken French from France and elsewhere.
Frequency also explains why volume matters. In the free A1 chapters, 358 of the 788 different word forms (45%) occur only once. A word seen once is rarely learned, so the rarer words stick only if you read enough to meet them again, or save them and review them on purpose.
How do you get to 500, 1,500 and 4,000 words?
- To 500: the skeleton. Articles, pronouns, être, avoir and the commonest present-tense verbs. A1 stories are built from these, so reading them is the quickest route.
- To 1,500: the past and the everyday. At A2 and B1 the passé composé and imparfait bring several new forms per verb. Save the form you meet; the infinitive follows.
- To 4,000: the long tail. More of every B2 chapter is rarer words. A series read to the end gives you repeats; spaced-repetition flashcards catch the rest.
- Count what you recognise. Understanding a word in a sentence is what reading needs; you don't have to be able to define it.
For the hours each stage tends to take, see how long it takes to learn French.
Start an A1 French story and see how many of the commonest words you already know.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
Is 1,000 words enough to speak French?
Enough for slow, simple exchanges about familiar things, roughly A2 territory. It isn't enough to follow fast speech: Nation's estimate for comfortable listening in English is 6,000–7,000 word families, and spoken French blurs many of the words you know on paper.
How many words do I need for B1 French?
No official body fixes a number. Contos moves readers to B1 at 1,500 known word forms and to B2 at 4,000, thresholds chosen so the stories at each level stay readable with occasional taps.
Does Contos count parle and parlait as two words?
Yes. Contos counts each word form you know, because that is what appears on the page. It makes its thresholds stricter than counts based on dictionary forms or word families.
Do English cognates count?
If you understand them in a sentence, yes. Words such as document, signature and appartement cost little effort, which is one reason English speakers reach their first few hundred French words quickly.
How many words does it take to read a French novel?
For English, Nation's 2006 study puts it at 8,000–9,000 word families to know 98% of the words. Expect a similar order of magnitude for French, which is why graded stories come first.