Data shows up everywhere in French journalism: news articles, government reports, business presentations, and language exams. Reading it requires a specific set of vocabulary that doesn’t come up in everyday conversation, so learners who are otherwise comfortable in French often stall the first time they hit a chart with a caption in French.
This post covers the vocabulary for naming charts, reading their parts, describing what the numbers do, and talking about all of it out loud.
Types of Charts and Graphs
| French | English |
|---|---|
| un graphique | a graph, a chart (the general term) |
| un diagramme | a diagram, a chart |
| une courbe | a curve, a line graph |
| un schéma | a diagram, an outline |
| un tableau | a table (of data) |
| un histogramme | a bar chart, a histogram |
| un diagramme en secteurs | a pie chart |
| un camembert | a pie chart (informal) |
Un graphique is the safe default if you’re not sure what to call something. It covers charts and graphs generally, the way “chart” does in English.
The Elements of a Chart
| French | English |
|---|---|
| l’axe (m.) | the axis |
| la légende | the legend, the key (also: caption) |
| les données (f.) | the data |
| les chiffres (m.) | the figures, the numbers |
| la source | the source |
| le sondage | the poll, the survey |
| l’enquête (f.) | the survey, the study, the investigation |
Note that la légende covers both the key that explains a chart’s colors and the caption underneath it. Context tells you which one is meant.
Core Measurement Vocabulary
| French | English |
|---|---|
| le pourcentage | the percentage |
| le taux | the rate |
| la moyenne | the average |
| le total | the total |
| la part | the share |
| environ | about, approximately |
| presque | almost |
Le taux is the word you’ll see attached to most statistics in French reporting: le taux de chômage (“the unemployment rate”), le taux de croissance (“the growth rate”). If you need general number vocabulary alongside this, our post on French numbers and math vocabulary covers counting, decimals, and arithmetic.
How French Writes the Numbers Themselves
Before you can interpret a French chart, you have to read its numbers correctly, and the punctuation conventions are the reverse of English ones. This trips up even readers who are confident with the vocabulary.
| Convention | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| Decimal separator | comma: 1,97 | period: 1.97 |
| Thousands separator | space: 30 000 | comma: 30,000 |
So a French chart showing 1,5 million means one and a half million, not 15. And 30 000 is thirty thousand, not thirty to three decimal places. Misreading a decimal comma as a thousands separator changes a figure by orders of magnitude, which is the fastest way to misinterpret a chart entirely.
Describing Change: Up, Down, and Flat
Most chart questions come down to whether something went up, went down, or held steady. Each direction has both a verb and a noun, and you’ll need both.
| Direction | Verb | Noun |
|---|---|---|
| Up | augmenter: to increase | une augmentation: an increase |
| Up | monter: to rise, to go up | une hausse: a rise |
| Up | croître: to grow | la croissance: growth |
| Down | diminuer: to decrease | une diminution: a reduction |
| Down | baisser: to fall, to lower | une baisse: a drop |
| Down | descendre: to go down | |
| Flat | rester stable: to remain stable | la stabilité: stability |
Two more verbs earn their place here because they show up constantly in data commentary:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| atteindre | to reach |
| dépasser | to exceed, to go beyond |
Le taux a augmenté entre 2010 et 2020. (“The rate increased between 2010 and 2020.”)
On observe une baisse importante après 2015. (“There’s a significant drop after 2015.”)
Les chiffres sont restés stables pendant cinq ans. (“The figures stayed stable for five years.”)
Fractions and Proportions
Charts deal in parts of a whole, and French handles the common fractions with their own words rather than building them all from ordinal numbers.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| la moitié (de) | half (of) |
| un tiers | a third |
| les deux tiers | two-thirds |
| un quart | a quarter |
| les trois quarts | three-quarters |
Beyond these, fractions are built from ordinal numbers and introduced with a definite article, where English uses an indefinite one:
Le cinquième des personnes interrogées ont répondu non. (“A fifth of the people surveyed answered no.”)
Les deux tiers des lecteurs préfèrent le papier. (“Two-thirds of readers prefer paper.”)
Plus de vs. Plus que: The Distinction
English speakers reliably get this wrong, and it comes up in almost every sentence about data. French has two ways to say “more than,” and they aren’t interchangeable.
- Plus de and moins de are used when there’s a specific benchmark being measured against, which is usually a number.
- Plus que and moins que are used when comparing one thing to another, with no specific figure named.
Plus de trente pour cent des élèves lisent tous les jours. (“More than thirty percent of students read every day.”) Thirty percent is the benchmark, so de is correct.
Les jeunes lisent moins que leurs parents. (“Young people read less than their parents.”) No figure is named, just two groups compared, so que is correct.
The test is simple: if a number follows, use de. If a person, group, or thing follows, use que. For the broader rules on building comparisons, see our post on French comparisons and superlatives.
Describing a Chart Out Loud
Reading data is one skill; presenting it is another. These verbs let you attribute information to a chart rather than stating it as bare fact, which is what you need for a presentation or an essay.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| montrer | to show |
| indiquer | to indicate |
| représenter | to represent |
| illustrer | to illustrate |
| selon | according to |
| d’après | according to |
Ce graphique montre l’évolution des ventes depuis 2015. (“This chart shows how sales have changed since 2015.”)
Selon ce sondage, la moitié des jeunes préfèrent l’écran. (“According to this poll, half of young people prefer screens.”)
D’après les données, le taux a dépassé quarante pour cent. (“According to the data, the rate exceeded forty percent.”)
Next Steps
For most use cases, you’ll just want to be able to recognize these vocabulary words. You probably will neve need to produce une diminution from memory in conversation, but you do need to know what it means the instant you see it or hear it. That’s exactly what spaced repetition is built for, so a vocabulary-focused app like Mondly is a practical way to drill this list until the words register automatically rather than being decoded each time.
