About the French word list
The list is ordered by frequency and keeps every accent mark: acute, grave, circumflex and the c with cedilla. Words are single words only, so you will not meet elisions such as l' or d' in the list itself.
That is a deliberate choice. Elisions are extremely common in real French, but they involve the apostrophe key and a different rhythm, so they belong in sentence and punctuation practice rather than in a clean word-speed test.
Letters worth drilling
The two most common trouble spots are e with an acute accent and e with a grave accent. They look similar, sit on different key paths on most layouts, and change meaning, so slow practice pays off quickly.
The c with cedilla appears in very common words such as ça, and the circumflex shows up in forms such as être and tâche. On an AZERTY keyboard these characters are typed directly; on other layouts they need dead keys or right Alt combinations.
The ligature oe is rare enough that you can treat it as a separate drill rather than a daily concern.
Keyboard layout
France and Belgium use AZERTY, where A and Q are swapped, Z and W are swapped, and the French variant places the digits behind Shift. Swiss French keyboards follow the Swiss layout with its own accents, and Canadian French uses a different arrangement again.
Whichever layout your system is set to, the test follows the characters your keyboard sends. Select French in the language menu and the word list will match.
How to practise French typing
- Start with lowercase words and no punctuation until the accent patterns settle.
- Drill the accent pairs e acute and e grave until they stop causing pauses.
- Add punctuation for one run so capitals, commas and apostrophes are included.
- Repeat the same word count weekly and compare averages.
Frequently asked questions
Does the French test include accents?
Yes. The accents are part of the words, and the list keeps them. If accents are your weak point, the test will show it honestly rather than hiding it.
Why are words with apostrophes missing?
The word list contains single words only. French elisions such as l' and d' need the apostrophe key, so they are practised with the punctuation setting rather than in the plain word list.