French typing test
Sixty seconds against the 240 most common words in Français. WPM, accuracy, a speed graph and the exact keys that slowed you down. Free, no signup.
Tab restarts Esc leaves the test results save to this browser only
The French word list, measured
Every figure there is counted from the file this test types, not estimated. Words are drawn from the common pool at random and never repeat back to back, so no two runs are the same and there is nothing to memorise.
Characters and keyboards
8 characters in the file sit outside the plain Latin alphabet: à ç è é ê î ô ù. They turn up in 8% of the common words, so you meet them constantly rather than occasionally. A French layout puts each on its own key; on a plain US board you would need an international or dead-key layout, and hunting for them costs real WPM.
What your score actually represents
French words run 0.8 characters longer than English on average. That does not make your WPM lower, because WPM counts every five characters as one word rather than counting actual words. What it changes is how much text you produce: at 60 WPM you are typing about 52 real French words a minute, against roughly 60 in English.
The formulas never change with the language: speed is correct characters divided by five per minute, accuracy is correct keystrokes over total keystrokes, and consistency comes from the variation in your per-second speed. All of them are written out on the typing metrics page.
Punctuation in French
Switch the punctuation modifier on and sentences get a capital, commas and quotes inside them, and a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark at the end. The apostrophe possessive stays off: it is an English habit and would be wrong in French.
Getting a fair reading
- Do one warmup run. Cold starts read five to ten WPM low in any language.
- Use the layout you actually type French on day to day, not a borrowed machine.
- Hold 96% accuracy before you push for speed. Corrections cost more time than they save.
- The control bar switches to 15, 30 or 120 seconds and turns punctuation and numbers on.
If your speed is stuck, the bottleneck is usually finger placement rather than effort. The free touch typing course rebuilds it from the home row, and your runs here feed the trend on your stats page.
Other tests and languages
- German typing test The same test in Deutsch
- Portuguese typing test The same test in Português
- All languages Every language the test supports, 64 in all
- All typing tests Every duration, mode and layout
- Free typing certificate Download your result, no signup
- What is a good WPM? Where your number sits against real data
Questions people ask
Can I take a typing test in French?
Yes. This page loads the French word list before the test starts, so every word you type is a real Français word, not translated English. The common pool holds 240 of the most frequent words and the full file holds 578, averaging 4.8 characters each. The test runs 60 seconds by default and you can change the length in the control bar.
Do I need a special keyboard for the French typing test?
French keyboards are usually AZERTY. The test reads whatever layout your system is set to, so type normally and accented characters register correctly. The test never remaps your keys: it reads exactly the characters your operating system sends, so whatever layout you already type on is the one being measured.
Is a French WPM score comparable to an English one?
The maths is identical: WPM is correct characters divided by five, per minute, and accuracy is correct keystrokes over total keystrokes. So the number means the same thing here as on the English test. The typing is not identical though. French words run 0.8 characters longer, so the same WPM represents fewer actual words. Reaching for characters your layout buries, or a script where one glyph takes several keystrokes, pulls a score down without your technique changing. Compare yourself in French against yourself in French.
What is the longest word in the French test?
aujourd'hui at 11 characters, the longest in the common pool. The average is 4.8, so most of what you type is far shorter. Long words are worth noticing because a single mistake inside one costs the whole word in the WPM count.
Is this French typing test free?
Yes. It is free, there is no account, and nothing is emailed to you. Results are written to your own browser storage, so your history lives on your device and you can review it on your typing stats page. If you need a document to show someone, take a run on the typing certificate page and download it there.