French typing test
Mesurez votre vitesse de frappe avec les mots français les plus courants. Gratuit et sans inscription.
Type the most common French words for 60 seconds and see your words per minute, accuracy and consistency. The clock starts with your first key.
The timer starts with your first key.Tab or Esc restarts
Typing French on your keyboard
Keyboards in France and Belgium are AZERTY: A and Q swap places, as do Z and W, and M moves next to L. É, è, ç and à have keys of their own on the number row, ù sits next to M, and ^ is a dead key for ê, â, î, ô and û. Keyboards in Canada are usually QWERTY, and in Switzerland QWERTZ.
On a keyboard without them, plain letters count: type e for é and c for ç. Few keyboards have a key for œ, so this test writes oe, as in coeur.
The words in this test
Each test draws at random from the 200 most common French words. They average 4.2 letters, against 4 in the English test. These are the first 30:
- de
- la
- le
- et
- à
- les
- est
- en
- des
- un
- que
- a
- pas
- une
- du
- il
- pour
- dans
- je
- qui
- au
- ce
- sur
- par
- on
- ne
- plus
- avec
- mais
- se
The letters you will press most
- e 13%
- s 9%
- o 8%
- u 8%
- a 8%
- t 8%
- i 7%
- n 7%
Getting faster in French
Your speed, accuracy and best here are French numbers, kept apart from any other language. After a test, practice in French finds the letters that slow you down and builds its text around them. The score is counted as in the main typing test, which explains how.
Frequently asked questions
How do I type é, è and ç without a French keyboard?
On Windows, add the United States-International layout: press ' then e for é, ` then e for è, ^ then e for ê, and ' then c for ç. On a Mac, press Option-E then e for é, Option-` then e for è, Option-I then e for ê, and Option-C for ç.
Sources: Microsoft: United States-International keyboard layout; Apple: Enter characters with accent marks on Mac
How do I set my keyboard to French?
On Windows 11, open Settings, then Time & language, then Language & region, and add French. Hold the Windows key and press Space to switch keyboards. On a Mac, open System Settings, then Keyboard, then Text Input, choose Edit, and add French. Control and Space switches between them.
Sources: Microsoft: Manage the input and display language settings in Windows; Apple: Write in another language on your Mac
Can I compare my French speed with my English speed?
The counting is the same: five typed characters are one word, so 60 WPM means 300 correct characters a minute in any language. The words here average 4.2 letters, against 4 in the English test. Your two numbers will still differ, because how well you know a language’s words and letter patterns matters as much as your fingers. Each language keeps its own best, so you always compare like with like.
Where do the words in this French test come from?
They are the 200 most common French words in wordfreq, a research list of word frequencies built from subtitles, news, books and web text. We took out names, abbreviations and words unfit for children, and each test draws at random from what is left.
Source: wordfreq, by Robyn Speer