What are the 10 most common verbs in French?

Être, avoir, faire, dire, pouvoir, aller, voir, savoir, vouloir, and venir. Frequency lists shuffle the middle of that order slightly, but être and avoir are always first and second by a wide margin.

Why are all the most common French verbs irregular?

Because frequency shields them from change. Regular patterns spread by analogy, but a verb you hear thousands of times is learned as a fixed shape and never gets reanalysed. Rare verbs, by contrast, get pulled into the -er group.

Which French verb should I learn first?

Être, then avoir. Not only are they the two most frequent verbs, they're also the auxiliaries of every compound tense, so you can't say anything about the past without them: j'ai vu, je suis allé.

What's the difference between savoir and connaître?

Savoir is for facts, information, and skills, and it can take a clause or an infinitive: je sais qu'il vient, je sais nager. Connaître is for familiarity with people, places, and works, and it always takes a direct object: je connais Paris.

Do all ten of these verbs take avoir in the past?

Eight do. Aller and venir take être and their participles agree with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont venus. Everything else in the list uses avoir, including être itself: j'ai été.

French grammar · Beginner

The 10 Most Common French Verbs: What They Mean and Why They Matter Most

Written by Camille Laurent, Lead French Curriculum Editor · Reviewed May 2026

The ten most frequent French verbs are être, avoir, faire, dire, pouvoir, aller, voir, savoir, vouloir, and venir. All ten are irregular, and between them they carry a remarkable share of everything anyone says in French, because most of them do grammatical work on top of their own meaning.

J'ai vu qu'il pouvait venir, mais il ne veut pas le dire.

I saw that he could come, but he doesn't want to say so.

What it is

Frequency lists for French agree closely at the top. Être and avoir lead, because they build every compound tense; faire and aller follow, because they build expressions and the near future; then come the verbs of saying, seeing, knowing, wanting, and coming. Learning these ten well is worth more than learning a hundred rarer verbs badly.

être, avoir, faire, dire, pouvoir, aller, voir, savoir, vouloir, venir. — to be, to have, to do, to say, to be able, to go, to see, to know, to want, to come.

How to spot it

Notice how often these verbs appear without carrying their own meaning. In j'ai fini, avoir means nothing; in je vais partir, aller means nothing. That double life is exactly why they top the list.

Nous avons attendu longtemps. — We waited a long time. (avoir as auxiliary)
Il va neiger. — It's going to snow. (aller as a tense marker)
Il fait froid dehors. — It's cold outside. (faire in a weather expression)
Je viens de comprendre. — I've just understood. (venir as a tense marker)

Every one of the ten is irregular. That is not a coincidence: the verbs used most often are the ones that never got tidied up.

The 10 Most Common French Verbs Quick Reference

The ten verbs, with the forms you need first

Verb	Meaning	je form	Past participle	Future stem
être	to be	suis	été	ser-
avoir	to have	ai	eu	aur-
faire	to do, to make	fais	fait	fer-
dire	to say, to tell	dis	dit	dir-
pouvoir	to be able, can	peux	pu	pourr-
aller	to go	vais	allé	ir-
voir	to see	vois	vu	verr-
savoir	to know	sais	su	saur-
vouloir	to want	veux	voulu	voudr-
venir	to come	viens	venu	viendr-

Common The 10 Most Common French Verbs Examples in French

Each of the ten doing its ordinary work:

Être and Avoir

Je suis fatigué ce soir.: I'm tired tonight.
Elle est professeure.: She's a teacher.
J'ai deux frères.: I have two brothers.
Nous avons soif.: We're thirsty.

Note nous avons soif: French uses avoir where English uses to be for hunger, thirst, age, cold, and fear.

Faire and Aller

Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?: What are you doing?
Il fait beau aujourd'hui.: The weather's nice today.
Je vais chez le dentiste.: I'm going to the dentist's.
Ça va mieux, merci.: I'm feeling better, thanks.

Faire covers doing and making, and it owns the weather: il fait chaud, il fait du vent.

Dire, Voir, Savoir

Je te dis la vérité.: I'm telling you the truth.
Tu vois ce que je veux dire ?: Do you see what I mean?
Je ne sais pas encore.: I don't know yet.
Nous savons nager.: We can swim.

Savoir plus an infinitive means to know how to do something: elle sait conduire, she can drive.

Pouvoir, Vouloir, Venir

Tu peux m'aider une minute ?: Can you help me for a minute?
Je voudrais un café, s'il vous plaît.: I'd like a coffee, please.
Ils viennent dîner samedi.: They're coming to dinner on Saturday.
On peut se voir demain ?: Can we meet tomorrow?

Je voudrais, the conditional of vouloir, is the polite way to ask for anything. Je veux sounds blunt.

Why These Ten Verbs Dominate

Frequency here isn't about topic. These verbs are common because French grammar itself is built out of them.

Être and Avoir Build Every Compound Tense

Any tense with two words uses one of them: j'ai parlé, je suis allé, j'avais fini, il sera parti. Every time you talk about the past you conjugate avoir or être, which is why they outrank everything else by a wide margin.

Nous avons déjà mangé.

We've already eaten.

No compound tense without avoir or être.

Aller and Venir Build Two More Tenses

Aller plus an infinitive is the near future and venir de plus an infinitive is the recent past. Both stay in the present tense while pointing elsewhere in time, so they appear constantly in speech.

Je viens de rentrer et je vais me coucher.

I've just got in and I'm going to bed.

je vais partir / je viens de partir.

Pouvoir, Vouloir, and Savoir Take a Bare Infinitive

These three attach directly to another verb with no preposition: je peux venir, je veux partir, je sais nager. That makes them the frame around a huge number of sentences, and it's one fewer thing to remember than with verbs like essayer de.

Elle veut apprendre le russe.

She wants to learn Russian.

No à and no de after them.

Faire Absorbs Dozens of Expressions

Weather, activities, sports, chores, and causation all run through faire: il fait froid, faire du vélo, faire la vaisselle, faire réparer la voiture. One verb replaces a scattered set of English ones.

Nous faisons les courses le samedi.

We do the shopping on Saturdays.

When in doubt about an activity, try faire.

Dire and Voir Carry Reported Speech and Opinion

Both introduce a clause with que and both anchor a large family of discourse expressions: je dirais que, on voit bien que, ça se voit, dis-moi. Verbs that let you talk about talking are unavoidable.

Je vois bien qu'il est inquiet.

I can see he's worried.

dire que, voir que.

Common Mistakes with The 10 Most Common French Verbs

Incorrect: Je suis vingt-cinq ans. — I'm twenty-five.

Correct: J'ai vingt-cinq ans. — I'm twenty-five.

Age in French is something you have, not something you are. The same applies to hunger, thirst, cold, and fear: j'ai faim, j'ai froid, j'ai peur.

Incorrect: Je suis été très occupé. — I've been very busy.

Correct: J'ai été très occupé. — I've been very busy.

Être uses avoir as its auxiliary in the compound past. The pairing looks contradictory but it applies to avoir too: j'ai eu.

Incorrect: Je sais ton frère. — I know your brother.

Correct: Je connais ton frère. — I know your brother.

Savoir is for facts and skills, connaître for people and places. English collapses both into know, so the choice has to be made consciously in French.

Incorrect: Je peux de venir demain. — I can come tomorrow.

Correct: Je peux venir demain. — I can come tomorrow.

Pouvoir, vouloir, devoir, savoir, aller, and venir all take a bare infinitive. No preposition intervenes, unlike with verbs such as essayer de or réussir à.

The Ten Verbs, Conjugated

Three present-tense tables and one compound past. If you memorise nothing else about French verbs, memorise these.

Être, avoir, faire, aller

The four workhorses. Three of them have an irregular vous form, and all four take -ont for ils, which no regular verb does.

Pronoun	être	avoir	faire	aller
je / j'	suis	ai	fais	vais
tu	es	as	fais	vas
il / elle / on	est	a	fait	va
nous	sommes	avons	faisons	allons
vous	êtes	avez	faites	allez
ils / elles	sont	ont	font	vont

In nous faisons the ai is pronounced like a plain e, so the form sounds nothing like je fais.

Dire, pouvoir, voir, savoir

Pouvoir and voir change vowel between the singular and the plural. Dire and savoir simply add a consonant to the stem.

Pronoun	dire	pouvoir	voir	savoir
je / j'	dis	peux	vois	sais
tu	dis	peux	vois	sais
il / elle / on	dit	peut	voit	sait
nous	disons	pouvons	voyons	savons
vous	dites	pouvez	voyez	savez
ils / elles	disent	peuvent	voient	savent

Vous dites is one of only three vous forms in the language that don't end in -ez.

Vouloir and venir, with two useful neighbours

Vouloir mirrors pouvoir exactly. Venir doubles its n in the third-person plural. Devoir and prendre are included because they follow immediately behind the top ten.

Pronoun	vouloir	venir	devoir	prendre
je / j'	veux	viens	dois	prends
tu	veux	viens	dois	prends
il / elle / on	veut	vient	doit	prend
nous	voulons	venons	devons	prenons
vous	voulez	venez	devez	prenez
ils / elles	veulent	viennent	doivent	prennent

Vouloir, pouvoir, devoir, and prendre all give a distinct third-person plural: veulent, peuvent, doivent, prennent.

The four essentials in the compound past

Three take avoir and one takes être. Aller's participle agrees with its subject, which is why the brackets are there.

Pronoun	être	avoir	faire	aller
je / j'	ai été	ai eu	ai fait	suis allé(e)
tu	as été	as eu	as fait	es allé(e)
il / elle / on	a été	a eu	a fait	est allé(e)
nous	avons été	avons eu	avons fait	sommes allé(e)s
vous	avez été	avez eu	avez fait	êtes allé(e)(s)
ils / elles	ont été	ont eu	ont fait	sont allé(e)s

J'ai été, not je suis été. Être takes avoir as its own auxiliary, which surprises most learners once.

The Expressions Built on These Verbs

A large part of the reason these ten verbs are so frequent is that they anchor fixed phrases. Learning the phrases is often more useful than learning further vocabulary.

Avoir where English uses to be

French treats hunger, thirst, age, fear, and heat as things you have rather than things you are. The pattern is completely regular once you accept the premise, and the noun after avoir takes no article.

J'ai faim.: I'm hungry.
Elle a trente ans.: She's thirty.
Nous avons froid.: We're cold.
Tu as raison.: You're right.
Ils ont peur du noir.: They're afraid of the dark.

Because these are nouns rather than adjectives, they're intensified with très all the same: j'ai très faim, not j'ai beaucoup faim.

Faire for weather, activities, and chores

Impersonal il fait covers most weather. Faire du or faire de la covers most sports and hobbies. And faire plus a definite article covers most housework.

Il fait vingt degrés.: It's twenty degrees.
Elle fait du piano depuis dix ans.: She's played the piano for ten years.
Je fais la lessive le dimanche.: I do the laundry on Sundays.
Nous faisons attention aux détails.: We pay attention to detail.

Faire faire something means to have it done: je fais réparer mon vélo, I'm getting my bike fixed.

Politeness and hedging

Pouvoir, vouloir, and savoir soften a request when they move into the conditional. This is the most common politeness device in French and it costs nothing but a change of ending.

Je voudrais réserver une table.: I'd like to book a table.
Pourriez-vous répéter ?: Could you say that again?
Sauriez-vous où se trouve la gare ?: Would you happen to know where the station is?
Je ne saurais pas vous dire.: I couldn't tell you.

Veux-tu and voulez-vous are grammatical but can sound abrupt. The conditional is the safer default with strangers.

The 10 Most Common French Verbs FAQs

What are the 10 most common verbs in French?: Être, avoir, faire, dire, pouvoir, aller, voir, savoir, vouloir, and venir. Frequency lists shuffle the middle of that order slightly, but être and avoir are always first and second by a wide margin.
Why are all the most common French verbs irregular?: Because frequency shields them from change. Regular patterns spread by analogy, but a verb you hear thousands of times is learned as a fixed shape and never gets reanalysed. Rare verbs, by contrast, get pulled into the -er group.
Which French verb should I learn first?: Être, then avoir. Not only are they the two most frequent verbs, they're also the auxiliaries of every compound tense, so you can't say anything about the past without them: j'ai vu, je suis allé.
What's the difference between savoir and connaître?: Savoir is for facts, information, and skills, and it can take a clause or an infinitive: je sais qu'il vient, je sais nager. Connaître is for familiarity with people, places, and works, and it always takes a direct object: je connais Paris.
Do all ten of these verbs take avoir in the past?: Eight do. Aller and venir take être and their participles agree with the subject: elle est allée, ils sont venus. Everything else in the list uses avoir, including être itself: j'ai été.