How it works
This French word search hides 16 of 24 beginner words, such as Rouge, Grenouille and Croissant, in a 15 by 15 grid. Each prints beside a line for its English meaning. Nine unit lists sort all 190 words.
Read the full guide
Match the puzzle to your French unit
Under the puzzle, Start from a list has twelve lists. Nine are units of 17 to 30 words: Colors, Numbers, More Number Words, Family, The Wider Family, School Things, Food and Drink, Animals, and Days, Months and Seasons. Short Words holds 64 words of 3 to 5 letters, such as Chat and Bleu. The French flashcards drill six of the units.
Quiz le, la and l' with the clues
Tick Show clues, not words. A noun's clue gives the English, then the article and a blank: "the frog: la ___" hides Grenouille. Before a vowel or a silent h the article shrinks to l', so the clue adds the gender: "the clock: l'___ (f)" hides Horloge.
- The grid prints plain capitals: Français hides as FRANCAIS and Sœur as SOEUR. The word list keeps every accent, cedilla and œ.
- Un has only two letters, too short to hide, so Numbers runs from Zéro and Deux up to Mille, 22 words in all.
- Some words only look English: Crayon is a pencil, Pain is bread, Chat is a cat and Ours is a bear.
Questions and answers
Is eighty quatre-vingt or quatre-vingts?
On its own, eighty is quatre-vingts, with an s. Larousse gives the rule under vingt: the s drops when another number follows, as in quatre-vingt-dix, ninety. The grid hides them without hyphens, as QUATREVINGTS and QUATREVINGTDIX, in More Number Words.
Why does Hibou take le when Horloge takes l'?
The h of Hibou is aspirated: it is silent, but it blocks the l'. Larousse marks such words with a star, and the nouns here are Haricot, Hibou and Hérisson. Horloge, Hippopotame, Hirondelle and Hiver have a plain silent h and take l'.
Do beau-père and belle-mère mean in-law or step?
Both. Larousse gives Beau-père two meanings: the father of your husband or wife, and the husband of a parent who has married again. Belle-mère works the same way. Demi-frère and Demi-sœur are a half brother and a half sister.
How was the French checked?
In September and October 2026 every spelling, accent and gender was looked up in the Larousse dictionary, and every English meaning in Wiktionary's French entries. Larousse writes lundi and janvier with a small first letter; only this list gives them a capital.