The Core Vocabulary of French
With this book, you will learn French fast and efficiently: This book contains practical vocabulary for both spoken and written French.
Intended for beginners and intermediate students, this book covers vocabulary roughly from CEFR A1 (complete beginner) to B1 (somewhat proficient).
Each entry in this book contains:
- English translation(s)
- French to English example sentences
- phonetic spelling
- detailed Part of Speech information.
Why Study By Frequency?:
Not all words are created equal. Some words are used more than other, and are thus more valuable to know. The secret to becoming fluent fast in a language, is by learning the right vocabulary.
Studies have shown that the most used 2.500 words account for 92% of all spoken French, and 82% of all written French text.
How Much Vocabulary Do You Need To Know?
While it's important to note it's impossible to pin down these numbers and statistics with 100% accuracy, these are a global average of multiple sources. According to scientific research, this is the amount of vocabulary needed for varying levels of fluency:
- 250 words: the essential core of a language. Without these words, you cannot construct sentences.
- 750 words: those that are used every single day by every person who speaks the language.
- 2500 words: those that should enable you to express everything you could possibly want to say, although some creativity might be required.
- 5000 words: the active vocabulary of native speakers without higher education. You will understand 95% of all written texts.
- 10,000 words: the active vocabulary of native speakers with higher education.
- 20,000 words: the amount you need to recognize passively in order to read, understand, and enjoy a work of literature such as a novel by a notable author.
Keeping above facts in mind, the value of a frequency dictionary is immense.
What is Inside This Book?
A frequency list of the most frequently used French words, based on analysis of 20 gigabytes of French subtitles, the equivalent of 80.000 books of 200 pages each; more than two large libraries worth of text.
A large base text collection is absolutely vital in order to establish a reliable general frequency list. Subtitles have the advantage of corresponding both to written and spoken language. This makes subtitles the best method for creating a useful and practical word frequency list.
This French to English frequency dictionary can roughly be divided in three parts.
- 2.500 French words in ranked by general frequency
- Frequency ranking by part of speech (E.G, The most used adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc)
- 2.500 French words in alphabetical order
French pronunciation can be tricky. To help pronounce French words correctly, we added phonetic transcriptions of French words. The phonetic spelling of words is done by the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Summary
The French Frequency Dictionary - Essential Vocabulary gives you a practical word list to learn French vocabulary. Study the most used words to rapidly gain a base vocabulary in French. These high frequency words are a great tool for beginners and intermediate students of French.
The frequency dictionary can be used as a stand-alone tool, or in combination with any other language learning program, app or book. This book roughly covers CEFR vocabulary ratings from A1 (absolute beginner) to B1 (somewhat proficient).
Invest this book, and invest in yourself. You will amaze yourself, and your friends and family by how fast you're progressing in your journey of speaking French.