The first time someone asked me how many words are in la langue française /la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃.sɛz/ — the French language — I was in a tiny Paris bookshop surrounded by dictionaries taller than my horns. The bookseller smiled, pointed to a massive multi-volume set, and said: “Assez pour t’occuper toute ta vie.” — enough to keep you busy your whole life.
That was not the number I was hoping for.
As learners, we love numbers: 2,000 words, 10,000 words, B2 vocabulary lists. But real languages are messy. New words appear, old ones fade, slang mutates every weekend, and every region adds its secret sauce.
By the end of this guide, you’ll understand:
- Why there’s no exact official number of French words
- How many words big dictionaries actually contain
- How many words native speakers typically use
- How many words you need at different learning stages
- How to stop obsessing over the “total” and focus on the useful
Let’s make the French word jungle feel a bit less terrifying.
Quick Primer: What Even Counts As “A Word” In French?
Before we start throwing numbers around, we have to agree on what a mot /mo/ — word — actually is.
On first mentions:
- un mot /œ̃ mo/ — a word
- un dictionnaire /œ̃ dik.sjɔ.nɛʁ/ — a dictionary
- un locuteur natif /œ̃ lɔ.ky.tœʁ na.tif/ — a native speaker
- un apprenant /œ̃ a.pʁə.nɑ̃/ — a learner
- le vocabulaire /lə vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ/ — vocabulary
French creates many forms from one base:
- parler /paʁ.le/ — to speak
- je parle /ʒə paʁl/ — I speak
- tu parlais /ty paʁ.lɛ/ — you were speaking
- parlé /paʁ.le/ — spoken
Question: are those one word or four different words?
Three main ways people count:
- Headwords in a dictionary (base entries: parler, parlé as adjective, etc.).
- Word families (all forms and related meanings connected to parler).
- Every distinct form that appears in real texts (including parlerai, parlions, etc.).
Depending on which method you pick, you can get totally different numbers for “how many words French has” — without the language changing at all.
French Word Counts: The Big Dictionary Perspective
If you ask un dictionnaire, it will proudly show you how much French it knows. But each dictionary has its own scope.
On first mentions:
- un mot vedette /œ̃ mo vɛ.dɛt/ — a headword (main dictionary entry)
- un terme technique /œ̃ tɛʁm tɛk.nik/ — a technical term
Big comprehensive dictionaries tend to include:
- mots courants /mo ku.ʁɑ̃/ — common words
- mots rares /mo ʁaʁ/ — rare words
- termes techniques /tɛʁm tɛk.nik/ — technical terms
- regional words, old words, literary words…
Roughly speaking (and simplifying for learner sanity):
- Huge multi-volume dictionaries of French list tens of thousands to over 100,000 headwords.
- Medium-sized dictionaries list 60,000–80,000 headwords.
- Learner dictionaries usually have 20,000–40,000 headwords.
And remember:
- Headword = the main form, like manger /mɑ̃.ʒe/ — to eat.
- The dictionary usually doesn’t count mange, mangeons, mangé, mangeais as separate headwords.
If you added all the inflected forms (every conjugation, every plural, every feminine form), you’d end up with hundreds of thousands of distinct “words” in real usage.
So at the “big dictionary” level, you can say:
French easily has over 100,000 headwords, and many more if you count all forms and technical terms.
But that’s only one side of the story.
Everyday French: How Many Words Do Native Speakers Use?
Good news: native speakers do not walk around with 100,000 words in their heads.
On first mentions:
- un mot fréquent /œ̃ mo fʁe.kɑ̃/ — a frequent word
- un mot rare /œ̃ mo ʁaʁ/ — a rare word
- le langage courant /lə lɑ̃.ɡaʒ ku.ʁɑ̃/ — everyday language
Most French conversations rely on a surprisingly small core.
Very simplified picture:
- 2,000–3,000 of the most frequent words cover a huge percentage of everyday speech.
- Un locuteur natif might understand tens of thousands of words (passive vocabulary), but use fewer regularly (active vocabulary).
Think of three circles:
- Noyau de base /nwa.jo də bɛz/ — basic core: a couple thousand ultra-common words.
- Vocabulaire actif /vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ ak.tif/ — words the person actually uses when speaking and writing.
- Vocabulaire passif /vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ pa.sif/ — words they understand when reading or listening but rarely say.
That last circle is huge: native speakers recognize many more words than they actively use. Same in English: you understand “meticulous,” “ambiguous,” “spectacular,” but maybe you don’t use them every day.
So even if “French” has over 100,000 headwords, an average French person lives comfortably with a much smaller subset in daily life.
Learner Reality Check: How Many Words Do You Need?
This is the part learners really care about: not “how big is the ocean,” but “how much water do I need in my bottle to cross the beach.”
On first mentions:
- le niveau A1 /lə ni.vo a.œ̃/ — A1 level
- le niveau B1 /lə ni.vo be.œ̃/ — B1 level
These are ballpark numbers, not a strict law, but they give a realistic sense:
- Around 500–800 words: you can survive basic travel situations (A1-ish): greetings, numbers, food, simple questions.
- Around 1,500–2,500 words: you can handle everyday topics with support (A2).
- Around 3,000–5,000 words: you can talk about your opinions, past experiences, plans, and read simpler articles (B1–B2 range).
Notice how tiny these numbers are compared to 100,000+ headwords in big dictionaries.
What really matters is:
- Choosing high-frequency words.
- Learning the most useful verbs, connectors, adjectives, and nouns for your life.
- Being able to reuse them flexibly, not collect them like Pokémon cards.
If you hit 3,000–5,000 really solid words, your French life suddenly becomes much more fun. You can gossip, complain, praise, joke, and ask clever questions — all without knowing how to say “anticonstitutionnellement”.
Word Families, Forms, And Why Counts Get Messy Fast
Part of the confusion comes from how we slice the vocabulary pie.
On first mentions:
- une famille de mots /yn fa.mij də mo/ — a word family
- une forme fléchie /yn fɔʁm fle.ʃi/ — an inflected form
Consider:
- écrire /e.kʁiʁ/ — to write
- j’écris /ʒe.kʁi/ — I write
- écrivais /e.kʁi.vɛ/ — was writing
- écrit /e.kʁi/ — written
- un écrivain /œ̃ ne.kʁi.vɛ̃/ — a writer
- une écriture /yn e.kʁi.tyʁ/ — writing (noun)
Are these:
- 1 word family?
- 3–4 headwords in a dictionary?
- 10+ distinct forms in real texts?
Different studies and dictionaries make different choices:
- A “word family” count treats all these as one family.
- A dictionary headword count might include écrire, écrivain, écriture as separate entries.
- A corpus count (looking at actual texts) might treat écris, écrit, écrivent as separate items.
This is why you’ll see different answers like:
- “French has 60,000 words.”
- “French has 120,000 words.”
- “French has hundreds of thousands of words.”
All of them can be “true” depending on the definition.
Why You’ll Hear Different Numbers (And Who’s Right)
So when someone says “Il y a 80 000 mots en français”, what are they really counting?
On first mentions:
- un corpus /œ̃ kɔʁ.py/ — a body of texts
- un registre de langue /œ̃ ʁe.ʒistʁ də lɑ̃ɡ/ — a language register
People might be looking at:
- The number of headwords in a specific dictionary.
- The number of unique forms in a large corpus of books, newspapers, etc.
- The size of a certain lexical database /lɛk.si.kal da.ta.bɛs/ used by linguists.
- A guess or a repeated internet myth.
Who’s right?
- The linguist: “It depends how you define ‘word’.”
- The dictionary: “We have X headwords.”
- The learner: “Okay but… how many do I need?”
The most honest answer you can give as a clever yak is something like:
French has tens of thousands of headwords in major dictionaries, and probably hundreds of thousands of distinct forms. But everyday life runs on a core of a few thousand high-frequency words.
Which is both true and much less panic-inducing.
Region Notes: French Beyond France
On first mentions:
- la francophonie /la fʁɑ̃.kɔ.fɔ.ni/ — the French-speaking world
- un régionalisme /œ̃ ʁe.ʒjɔ.na.lism/ — a regional expression
French isn’t just France:
- Canada, Belgique, Suisse, Afrique, Caraïbes… — each region has its own words, expressions, and borrowed terms.
- These regionalisms are often not included in every dictionary, especially learner ones.
This means:
- Any dictionary number is really “how many words this dictionary decided to include.”
- The real French vocabulary across la francophonie is even bigger and fuzzier.
- As a learner, you don’t need to chase every regional term. Focus on standard French, then enjoy local additions as fun bonuses.
So if someone shows you a dictionary and says “Voilà, that’s all the French words,” you can smile politely and know they’re holding a very pretty illusion.
Mini Dialogues: Talking About Word Counts In French
Each line: French sentence, IPA, then natural English.
1. Curious Learner, Patient Native
Il y a combien de mots en français ?
/il j‿a kɔ̃.bjɛ̃ də mo ɑ̃ fʁɑ̃.sɛ/
How many words are there in French?
Bonne question… personne ne sait vraiment.
/bɔn kɛs.tjɔ̃ pɛʁ.sɔn nə sɛ vʁɛ.mɑ̃/
Good question… nobody really knows.
Mais il y en a assez pour te faire travailler toute ta vie.
/mɛ il j‿ɑ̃ a.a.se puʁ tə fɛʁ tʁa.va.je tut ta vi/
But there are enough to keep you working your whole life.
Super… c’est rassurant.
/sy.pɛʁ sɛ ʁa.sy.ʁɑ̃/
Great… that’s reassuring.
2. Learner Worrying About Vocabulary Size
Je n’apprendrai jamais tous les mots du dictionnaire.
/ʒə na.pʁɑ̃.dʁe ʒa.mɛ tu le mo dy dik.sjɔ.nɛʁ/
I’ll never learn all the words in the dictionary.
Aucun locuteur natif ne les connaît tous non plus.
/o.kœ̃ lɔ.ky.tœʁ na.tif nə le kɔ.nɛ tus nɔ̃ ply/
No native speaker knows all of them either.
Tu as besoin surtout des mots les plus fréquents.
/ty a bə.zwɛ̃ syʁ.tu de mo le ply fʁe.kɑ̃/
You mostly need the most frequent words.
Ça, j’aime bien.
/sa ʒɛm bjɛ̃/
That, I like.
3. Talking About Learning Goals
Combien de mots je dois apprendre pour bien parler ?
/kɔ̃.bjɛ̃ də mo ʒə dwa.za.pʁɑ̃dʁ puʁ bjɛ̃ paʁ.le/
How many words do I have to learn to speak well?
Avec quelques milliers de mots, tu peux déjà dire beaucoup de choses.
/a.vɛk kɛl.kə mi.lje də mo ty pø de.ʒa diʁ bo.ku də ʃoz/
With a few thousand words, you can already say a lot of things.
Et après, tu enrichis ton vocabulaire petit à petit.
/e.t‿a.pʁɛ ty ɑ̃.ʁi.ʃi tɔ̃ vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ pə.ti ta pə.ti/
And after that, you enrich your vocabulary little by little.
C’est plus motivant comme ça.
/sɛ ply mɔ.ti.vɑ̃ kɔm sa/
That’s more motivating like that.
Quick Reference: Vocabulary About “Vocabulary”
| French | IPA | English |
| la langue française | la lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃.sɛz | the French language |
| un mot | œ̃ mo | a word |
| le vocabulaire | lə vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ | vocabulary |
| un dictionnaire | œ̃ dik.sjɔ.nɛʁ | dictionary |
| un mot vedette | œ̃ mo vɛ.dɛt | headword (main dictionary entry) |
| une famille de mots | yn fa.mij də mo | word family |
| une forme fléchie | yn fɔʁm fle.ʃi | inflected form |
| un locuteur natif | œ̃ lɔ.ky.tœʁ na.tif | native speaker |
| un apprenant | œ̃ a.pʁə.nɑ̃ | learner |
| un corpus | œ̃ kɔʁ.py | body of texts |
| le langage courant | lə lɑ̃.ɡaʒ ku.ʁɑ̃ | everyday language |
| un mot fréquent | œ̃ mo fʁe.kɑ̃ | frequent word |
| un mot rare | œ̃ mo ʁaʁ | rare word |
| un terme technique | œ̃ tɛʁm tɛk.nik | technical term |
| un régionalisme | œ̃ ʁe.ʒjɔ.na.lism | regional expression |
| la francophonie | la fʁɑ̃.kɔ.fɔ.ni | the French-speaking world |
| le vocabulaire actif | lə vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ ak.tif | active vocabulary |
| le vocabulaire passif | lə vɔ.ka.by.lɛʁ pa.sif | passive vocabulary |
| un registre de langue | œ̃ ʁe.ʒistʁ də lɑ̃ɡ | language register |
Five-Minute Practice Plan: From “How Many?” To “I’ve Got Enough”
- Vocabulary Meta Talk (1 minute)
Say these aloud a few times:
la langue française, le vocabulaire, un dictionnaire, un locuteur natif, un apprenant
Focus on smooth rhythm, not speed. - Explain The Myth In Simple French (1–2 minutes)
Out loud, try to say something like:
Personne ne sait exactement combien de mots il y a en français. Les dictionnaires ont beaucoup de mots, mais les locuteurs natifs utilisent surtout les mots les plus fréquents.
Don’t aim for perfection; aim for communicating the idea. - “How Many Words Do I Need?” Mini-Speech (1 minute)
Practice:
Je n’ai pas besoin de tous les mots. Avec quelques milliers de mots, je peux déjà parler de beaucoup de sujets.
Say it until it feels natural. - Word Family Hunt (1 minute)
Pick one verb you know well (for example parler or finir) and list out loud all the forms you can:
je parle, tu parles, il parlait, nous parlons, parlé…
Then remind yourself: that’s one word family in most counts. - Set A Realistic Goal (30 seconds)
In French, say a tiny goal sentence:
Je veux apprendre mille mots très fréquents cette année.
or
Je préfère bien connaître trois mille mots que connaître dix mille mots seulement un peu.
Bonus: next time someone asks you “How many words are in the French language?”, answer in French with a smile:
Personne ne sait vraiment, mais il y en a assez pour toute une vie… et moi, je commence par les plus utiles.
Yak’s Last Word On French Word Counts
French is not a box with a fixed number of pieces; it’s more like a forest that keeps quietly growing new leaves while you’re not looking. Whether there are 60,000, 100,000, or 300,000 words out there, your job as a learner isn’t to find them all — it’s to choose the ones that make your life in French bigger, richer, and more fun.
If you build a strong little island of a few thousand useful words, the rest of the ocean stops feeling scary and starts looking like somewhere you might actually want to explore — one new word, one new joke, one new conversation at a time.