What is a French vocabulary test?
A French vocabulary test estimates how many French words you know by checking which ones you recognise across a range of difficulty — from the everyday words in every first lesson to rare words most learners meet only at B2 and beyond. Instead of asking you to define every word, it samples words at different frequency levels and scales up from how many you know.
The test above mixes real French words with a few made-up ones that only look French. Marking a made-up word as "known" reveals over-confidence, so your final number is corrected for guessing — the same "Yes/No" recognition method used in vocabulary research.
How many French words do you need?
Most everyday French conversation runs on a few thousand of the most frequent words; the rarest words in this test sit past the 8,000 mark. Here is roughly how a known-word count maps to a CEFR level:
| Words known | Approx. CEFR | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Under 750 | A1 | Basic phrases, greetings, everyday objects |
| 750–1,500 | A2 | Simple conversations, routine daily topics |
| 1,500–3,000 | B1 | Independent use — travel, opinions, familiar topics |
| 3,000–5,000 | B2 | Comfortable across most topics; news and work |
| 5,000–9,000 | C1 | Advanced — nuance, implicit meaning, professional use |
| 9,000+ | C2 | Near-native range |
How does this French vocabulary test work?
The test shows French words sampled from several frequency bands of a large corpus of spoken French (film and television subtitles) — the most common 1,000 words, the next 1,000, and so on out to the rarest. For each band it measures the share you recognise, multiplies by how many words that band represents, and adds the bands together. That gives an estimate of your total French vocabulary.
One thing is deliberate: the words were chosen to leave out transparent cognates. An English speaker "knows" table, important and nation without a day of French, and a test full of those words would inflate the score. The words here are ones you only know if you have actually learned them.
Because tapping every word would inflate the score, the made-up words act as a check: the more of them you claim to know, the more your estimate is discounted. The result is shown as a word count and an approximate CEFR range, not a certification.
What does the CEFR level mean here?
The level is an estimate. The word-count bands above are the ones Nivelo uses for English and Spanish; they have not been calibrated separately for French learners, so treat the band as a range rather than a verdict. The word count itself is the more useful number — it moves first when your French is growing.
For an official French certificate you would sit the DELF or DALF (France Éducation international) or the TCF or TEF. Those exams measure all four skills; a vocabulary test measures one.
French on Nivelo
Nivelo's practice — conversation, graded reading, listening and flashcards — is built for Spanish and English learners today. French practice is planned. If you leave your email with your result, that is the address we will write to when French opens.
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