What is the word new in french

What’s the Difference Between Neuf and Nouveau?

English speakers sometimes find it difficult to translate «new» into French, due to confusion over the French words nouveau and neuf. In fact, the French adjectives have distinctly different meanings; the problem is actually caused by the fact that the English «new» has more than one meaning. Fortunately, this is an easy problem to remedy. Read over this lesson, learn the difference between nouveau and neuf, and you won’t have any more trouble saying new in French.

Nouveau

Nouveau means new in the sense of new to the owner — a change or improvement; that is, something that is new because it’s different than what came before, regardless of whether it is brand new from the store. The opposite of nouveau is ancien (former).
As-tu vu ma nouvelle voiture ?
Have you seen my new car?
(The car is not necessarily new out of the factory; new here means new to the speaker.)
Il a mis une nouvelle chemise.
He put a new shirt on.
(He took off the shirt he was wearing and put a different one on in its place. The «new» shirt may or may not be new from the store; the important thing here is that it is different.)
C’est nouveau.
It’s new.
(I just bought/found/made it.)
Nous avons un nouvel appartement.
We have a new apartment.
(We just moved.)
J’ai vu le nouveau pont.
I saw the new bridge.
(The replacement for the one that got washed out.)

Nouveau precedes the noun it modifies and changes to agree in gender and number with it.
nouveau — nouvelle — nouveaux — nouvelles
Nouveau has a special form for masculine nouns that begin with a vowel: nouvel.

Note that une nouvelle is a piece of news and les nouvelles refer to the news in general.

Neuf

Neuf means new in the sense of brand new, fresh out of the factory, first of its kind. The opposite of neuf is vieux (old).
Je n’ai jamais acheté une voiture neuve.
I’ve never bought a new car.
(I always buy used cars.)
Il a acheté une chemise neuve.
He bought a new shirt.
(He went to the store and bought a brand-new shirt.)
Comme neuf.
As good as new.
(It’s fixed, so now it’s just like new.)
Nous avons un appartement neuf.
We have a new apartment.
(We live in a brand-new building.)
J’ai vu le Pont neuf.
I saw the Pont neuf (in Paris).
(Although this is the oldest bridge in Paris, at the time it was built and named, it was a brand-new bridge in a brand-new spot.)

Neuf follows the noun it modifies and changes to agree in gender and number with it:
neuf — neuve — neufs — neuves

Remember that neuf is also the number nine:
J’ai neuf cousins — I have nine cousins.

Nouveau vs Neuf

In summary, nouveau means something has changed, while neuf indicates that something is newly-made. With this new knowledge, you shouldn’t have any more trouble deciding whether to use neuf or nouveau.

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Have you been looking to EFFICIENTLY improve your conversational skills and effectively tackle a lot of new vocabulary? Check out our post on the 1000 Most Common French Words below. This is a French frequency vocabulary list, which means the 1st word is used twice as much as the one below it and so on. This is a great hack to learn the French language in a straightforward and painless manner.

OTHER PAINLESS FRENCH LEARNING HACKS:

1. Get your tongue moving with these French tongue twisters
2. 70% of French students dont know these words, do you? Free quiz (no email or info necessary)
3. Get original French language films with this Netflix hack that will help you learn a language.
4. Upgrade with this quick list of common French idioms

Our list of the 1000 most common words in French below:

When learning a new language the amount of vocabulary can be daunting. Have you heard people say things like: “We only use around 700 words when we talk?” This is true to some degree. The number of words to learn to speak a language really depends on your purpose. Remember that 300 to 600 words may be enough to travel, but at least 1000 words are necessary for a conversation. The most important thing is not knowing how many words you need to speak a language, but which words to know. Complete fluency is in the 10,000 word range. According to the economist: “Most adult native test-takers range from 20,000–35,000 words. Average native test-takers of age 8 already know 10,000 words. Average native test-takers of age 4 already know 5,000 words. Adult native test-takers learn almost 1 new word a day until middle age”

10,000 words. Wow. That does seem daunting when you are first starting out. But like anything new, you just have to start small and keep adding to it.

That’s why we wrote this blog article: Find the 1000 words used most often in spoken French below.

Why these 1000 words?

Let’s imagine that you just got a job as a bartender. Would you try to learn every cocktail known to man, or would you focus on the cocktails that are most popular in your area? We developed this list of words based on the idea of the 80/20 principle (the cornerstone of results-based living). This strategy developed by David Kock says :”The 80/20 Principle asserts that a minority of causes, inputs or efforts usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs or rewards” So instead of learning 10,000 words in no particular order, learn the most common 100 words, then the most common 500 words, and then the most common 1000 words. If you want to check out this classic business book, you can order it here.

Other great ways to improve your vocabulary:

1. Watch Netflix in Original language with original language captions
2. Check out a great book like this: 2000 most frequently used French words
3. Do some quick daily exercises on DuoLingo or any other free language learning app
4. Take some classes with us at Strømmen and speak to a real human in person or online 

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The most common French words are: Oui (yes), non (no), merci (thank you), je (I), tu/vous (you), le/la/les (the), un, une des (a, an and some), le/la/les (it, them), et (and) and mais (but).

What are the most frequently used French words?

Learning the most common words is the first step to learning to speak fluently. Rather than just providing a list of top-100 words without any structure, we’ve created a list based on language sub-areas such as common adjectives, prepositions and verbs. We’ve also broken our list down into noun groups such family, clothing and much more.

Top 10 French words in a nutshell

These are the top ten frequently most used words in the French language:

1. Oui yes
2. Non no
3. Merci thank you
4. Je I
5. Tu/vous you
6. le, la, les the
7. Un, une, des a, an, some
8. le, la, les it, them
9. Et and
10. Mais but

Example sentences with the most common words:

• Oui, je parle français. Yes, I speak French.
• Non, je ne parle pas français. No, I don’t speak French.
• Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much.
• Je mange le pain. I eat the bread.
• Tu manges la salade. You seat the salad.
• Vous mangez la pizza. You eat the pizza.
• Le garçon chante. The boy sings.
• La fille nage. The girl swims.
• Les enfants chantent. The children sing.
• Un garçon écrit. A boy writes.
• Une fille dort. A girl sleeps.
• Des enfant étudient. Some kids study.
• Je le/la mange. I eat it.
• Je les mange. I eat them.
• Marc et Sylvie. Marc and Sylvie.
• Il aime Sylvie mais il est trop timide. He likes Sylvie but he’s too shy.

How to say “not in French

In French, to say “not”, wrap ne…pas around a verb. For example, “Je ne parle pas français” (I don’t speak French).

This is called negation. This page covers French negation in detail.

• Ne…pas not

Articles: words for “the” and “a, an”

The articles in French (words for the and a/an) must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

The words for the are called the definite article and the words for a/some are called the indefinite article. This page explains these French articles in detail.

• Le the (masculine)
• La the (feminine)
• Les the (plural)
• L’ the (comes before noun starting with a vowel)
• Un a or an (masculine)
• Une a or an (feminine)
• Des some (plural)

Personal pronouns

One of the first steps in learning French is to learn the personal pronouns. These refer to words for people (I, you, he, she, etc.).

This page covers French personal pronouns in detail.

• Je I
• Tu you
• Il he
• Elle she
• On one
• Nous we
• Vous you (formal)
• Ils they (all men or mixed company)
• Elles they (female only)

Stressed pronouns

A second kind of pronoun that’s use for people is is called a “stressed pronoun”. These are words like me, him and her in English.

This page covers French stressed pronouns.

• Moi me
• Toi you
• Lui him
• Elle her
• Nous us
• Vous you
• Eux them
• Elles them (female only)

Most common verbs

Verbs are action words. For example, “I go” or “I eat”. In the list below we included 10 commonly used verbs in the first-person singular (I) form.

This lesson covers the most common French verbs in detail.

• Je suis I am
• J’ai I have
• Je fais I make, I do
• Je vais I go
• Je parle I speak
• Je mange I eat
• Je sais I know
• Je veux I want
• Je dois I must
• Je peux I can

Words for politeness and greetings

It’s essential to learn words for politeness and greetings. Bonjour means hello and au revoir means good-bye.

• Bonjour Hello, good morning
• Au revoir goodbye
• Merci thank you
• De rien you’re welcome
• Salut hi and bye
• Bonsoir good evening
• Bonne nuit good night
• S’il vous plaît please (formal)
• S’il te plaît please (informal)

French numbers

Learning to count to ten is essential for any beginner. Learning these most basic numbers will help you to ask how much things cost, tell time and say the date.

This lesson covers the French numbers 1-100 in detail.

• Un one
• Deux two
• Trois three
• Quatre four
• Cinq five
• Six six
• Sept seven
• Huit eight
• Neuf nine
• Dix ten

Connecting words

Connecting words or conjunctions are words that are used to join two parts of sentence together.

• Et and
• Ou or
• Si if
• Mais but
• Quand when
• Que that
• Qui who, that
• Comme like, as
• Parceque because

French prepositions

A preposition is a word that introduces another part of a sentences. For example, “in the bathroom”, “at the movies” or “with mom”.

The two most commonly used French prepositions are à (to/at) and de (from/of). This page covers the French preposition à in detail and this page covers the French preposition de.

• À to, at
• De from, of
• Avec with
• Pour four
• Par by
• Sans without
• Contre against
• Dans in, inside of
• En in
• Sur on, on top of
• Chez at the home, place of
• Avant before
• Après after

French adverbs

An adverb is a word that’s used to describe how you do something. For example, “I run quickly” or “You speak slowly“.

• Bien well
• Mauvais poorly
• Vite quickly
• Rapidement quickly
• Lentement slowly
• Heureusement fortunately
• Seulement only
• Rarement rarely, seldom
• Souvent often
• Beaucoup a lot
• Un peu a little, a bit
• Trop too, too much

Family members

Learning the words for family members is essential for getting to know people.

This lesson covers French family vocabulary in detail.

• le père father
• la mère mother
• le frère brother
• la soeur sister
• le fils son
• la fille daughter
• le bébé baby
• l’enfant child
• le grand-père grandfather
• la grand-mère grandmother
• le cousin, la cousine cousin
• l’oncle uncle
• la tante aunt

French adjectives

Adjectives are describing words. For example, “a big house” or “an intelligent girl”.

The French rules for adjectives are very complex as the adjective must agree in number and gender with the noun (the thing) it’s describing (talking about).

The -e in parenthesis below indicates the feminine form of the adjective.

This page covers French adjectives and rules in detail.

• grand(e) big
• petit(e) little
• bon (bonne) good
• mauvais(e) bad
• beau (belle) beautiful
• joli(e) pretty
• jeune young
• vieux (vielle) old
• heureux (heureuse) happy
• triste sad

French colors

Learning the colors is very important for describing the things we see. Colors are also adjectives as they are description words.

This page covers French colors in detail.

• Rouge red
• Orange orange
• Jaune yellow
• Blanc white
• Noir black
• Bleu blue
• Vert green

Question words

Question words are words used for seeking information when asking a question. For example: Who, what, where, when and why.

• Quel (Quelle) which
• Qui who
• Quoi what
• Où where
• Quand when
• Why pourquoi

Words about time

Words about time include days of the week, months and times of day.

The following is just a sample of these words. These pages cover these words in detail: Telling time and months and days of the week,

• Aujourd’hui today
• Hier yesterday
• L’heure hour
• Le temps time
• Quelle heure what time
• Midi noon
• Minuit midnight
• Lundi Monday
• Mardi Tuesday
• Mercredi Wednesday
• Jeudi Thursday
• Vendredi Friday
• Dimanche Sunday

Food and drinks vocabulary

It’s nice to learn a few food words. This page offers a very complete list of French food vocabulary.

• le pain bread
• la viande meat
• le lait milk
• le fromage cheese
• le poulet chicken
• la salade salade
• la pomme apple
• la pomme de terre potatoe
• le riz rice
• le gâteau cake
• l’eau water
• le café coffee

Names of places

It’s important to know how to say the names of places. Here’s a list of frequently used words.

• le pays country
• l’état state
• la ville city
• le village town
• l’école school
• l’église church
• la maison house
• le bureau office
• le supermarché supermarket
• la poste post office
• la bibliothèque library

Clothing words

Here’s a brief list of some clothing words. This page covers clothing vocabulary in detail.

• la chemise shirt
• le pantelon pants
• la jupe skirt
• la robe dress
• le chemisier blouse
• le pull sweater
• les chaussures shoes
• les chaussettes socks

Conclusion

We hope we have helped to provide a comprehensive overview of the most common French words. We have summarized our top-10 list in the following table.

French	English	Pronunciation and comments
Oui	Yes	Pronounced «wee». «Mais oui!» Means of course!
Non	No	Pronounced «nɔ̃» or nasal «on». Non, je n’aime pas le fromage. No, I don’t like cheese.
Merci	Thank you	Pronounced «mer-see». Merci beaucoup means «Thank you very much».
Je	I	Pronounced «ʒə» or «juh». Je parle français! I speak French!
Tu/vous	You (informal), You (plural and formal)	Tu = ty, vous = vu or vou. This page covers pronunciation of tu.
le, la, les	The	Pronounced «luh», «lah» and «lay». When you want to say «the» all nouns require one of these words.
Un, une, des	A, an, some	Pronounced «uhn», «yn» and «day». Nouns require these articles as well.
le, la, les	It, them	Pronounced «luh», «la» and «les». These are covered in this object pronoun lesson.
Et	And	Pronounced «ay» and never «et». Et never has a liason in French.
Mais	But	Pronounced «may». Liason rule can apply to mais.

More lessons:

• French for beginners – how to get started
• French vocabulary lists
• French grammar lessons

More resources:

• Top 1000 French words