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French A1 — Core Words: People, Feelings & Ideas flashcards

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100 of the most frequent A1 French words for people and family, body and health, home, work, feelings, and talking and thinking, each with an original example sentence and its translation.

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Learn deck · part of French A1–A2 · written against: CEFR A1–A2; standard metropolitan French; the vocabulary is 1,000 of the most frequent everyday words of an OpenSubtitles 2018 frequency list, since DELF publishes no word list. Updated 2026-10-10.

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  1. l'homme (n.m.)
    man

    Cet homme parle trois langues. — That man speaks three languages.

    Watch out: The h is mute: l'homme, cet homme, with a liaison in les hommes.
    People & family
  2. la vie (n.f.)
    life

    Elle aime beaucoup sa vie à Paris. — She really loves her life in Paris.

    Note: la vie is also the cost of living: À Genève, la vie coûte cher = Living in Geneva is expensive.
    People & family
  3. la main (n.f.)
    hand

    Je tiens la main de ma grand-mère dans la rue. — I hold my grandmother's hand in the street.

    Watch out: With a reflexive verb, body parts take le, la, les, not mon, ma, mes: je me frotte les yeux.
    Body & health
  4. la tête (n.f.)
    head

    Il tourne la tête quand je l'appelle. — He turns his head when I call him.

    Note: avoir mal à la tête = to have a headache; faire la tête = to sulk.
    Body & health
  5. l'affaire (n.f.)
    matter, business; bargain; (pl.) belongings, things

    Les affaires de Max traînent partout dans l'entrée. — Max's things are lying all over the hall.

    Note: une bonne affaire = a good deal; les affaires is also business: un homme d'affaires.
    Home & daily life
  6. rentrer (v.) (je rentre, nous rentrons)
    to go home, to come back home; to come in (passé composé: je suis rentré·e)

    Je rentre chez moi à six heures. — I go home at six.

    Watch out: rentrer = to come back home or back in; entrer = to go in; retourner = to go back to a place.
    Home & daily life
  7. apprendre (v.) (j'apprends, nous apprenons)
    to learn; to teach (passé composé: j'ai appris)

    Ce semestre, mon cousin apprend l'italien en ligne. — This semester, my cousin is learning Italian online.

    Watch out: apprendre à + infinitive = to learn to; apprendre quelque chose à quelqu'un = to teach someone something.
    Work & study
  8. gagner (v.) (je gagne, nous gagnons)
    to earn; to win

    Mon frère gagne un peu d'argent le week-end. — My brother earns a little money at weekends.

    Note: Also to win: gagner un match; gagner du temps = to save time.
    Work & study
  9. plaire (v.) (je plais, nous plaisons)
    to please, to be liked (passé composé: j'ai plu)

    Le nouveau professeur de maths plaît à tous les élèves. — All the pupils like the new maths teacher.

    Watch out: The thing liked is the subject: Ça me plaît = I like it (literally, it pleases me).
    Feelings & character
  10. penser (v.) (je pense, nous pensons)
    to think

    Je pense que Léa arrive ce soir en train. — I think Léa is arriving by train this evening.

    Watch out: Think about is penser à; think of (an opinion) is penser de: Que pensent tes parents de ton stage à Lille ?
    Talking & thinking

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Word selection follows a frequency list of French content words (OpenSubtitles 2018 via hermitdave/FrequencyWords: word lists CC BY-SA 4.0, code MIT; lemmas by simplemma), cleaned by hand and banded to A1 by rank, with days, months, seasons and numbers added as a fixed group; meanings and gender checked against the Le Robert and Larousse online dictionaries and the Bescherelle conjugation tables, glosses against the Larousse and Cambridge French–English dictionaries, usage notes against the TLFi (CNRTL), and Québec usage against Usito (Université de Sherbrooke). Reference only; all example sentences are original.

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