Les Petits Mots — 12 filler words to sound native | Vocabulary
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Les Petits Mots
The 12 filler words that make you sound French — textbooks never teach them
🎬 The 20-second version
5 quick questions on « Les Petits Mots » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →
📘 How fillers actually work
- Fillers buy you thinking time — instead of freezing, natives say euh… alors… en fait… That’s fluency insurance.
- Du coup is the most overused word in modern spoken French — using it correctly is an instant native marker.
- Quoi at the END of a sentence adds emphasis (c’est cher, quoi) — completely different from question quoi.
- Ben (from “bien”) is pronounced [bɛ̃] like “bain” — ben oui ! = well, yeah!
- Dose matters: one filler per sentence sounds native; five sounds nervous. Listen for them in French shows — you’ll hear them everywhere now.
🔊 Useful phrases
🔊 Example sentences
✍️ Practice
the modern spoken “so” = du ___ (most overused word)
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coup
« C’est compliqué, ___ . » (end-of-sentence emphasis) (you know)
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quoi
actually = en ___ (correction filler)
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fait
anyway / long story short = ___ (wrap it up)
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bref
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🎯 More practice — translation — put it into French
Translate into French: « Well yeah, so we stayed home. » (translation)
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Ben oui, du coup on est restés à la maison.
Translate into French: « It was just great, you know! » (translation)
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C’était génial, quoi !
Translate into French: « Right, so, what are we eating? » (translation)
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Bon, alors, qu’est-ce qu’on mange ?
Translate into French: « Honestly, right, it wasn’t great. » (translation)
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Franchement, hein, c’était pas terrible.
Translate into French: « Anyway, all’s well that ends well. » (translation)
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Bref, tout est bien qui finit bien.
Go further: get the full picture in our guide How to practise French speaking — even alone.
French filler words — FAQ
What are the most common French filler words?
The everyday ones textbooks skip: ben, bah, alors, du coup, en fait, quoi, bon, voilà and genre. The list above has 12 with audio.
Why do filler words make you sound more French?
Native speakers rarely speak in clean textbook sentences — small words like du coup and quoi add natural rhythm and buy thinking time. Dropping them in instantly loosens up your French. Examples: « Alors… en fait, c’est une longue histoire. »; « Ben oui, du coup on est restés à la maison. »; « C’était génial, quoi ! ».
How do I use French filler words correctly?
Start each sentence with alors or ben, end casual ones with quoi, and use du coup for « so / as a result ». Listen for them in the audio above and copy the placement.
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