This French typing test uses genuine French words and short everyday passages, so every accent you meet is one you will also type in real emails and reports. It is free, runs in your browser and needs no account. In French it is a test de frappe or test de dactylographie, and speed is usually given in mots par minute or frappes par minute.
What makes typing French different
French adds a lot of marks to the Latin alphabet: é (accent aigu), è à ù (accent grave), ê â î ô û (circonflexe), ë ï ü (tréma), ç (cédille) and the ligature œ in cœur and sœur. The accent decides meaning: ou means "or" and où means "where"; a is "has" and à is "to".
The bigger change is the keyboard itself. France and Belgium use AZERTY, not QWERTY: A and Q swap, Z and W swap, M moves to the home row, and the top row types accented letters and symbols first – you hold Shift to get the digits. French punctuation adds its own habits, such as a space before : ; ! ? in careful writing. If you move between an English and a French keyboard, expect your first few French tests to be slower while your fingers relearn where A, Z and M live.
Typing French characters with an English keyboard
There are two ways to take this test de frappe en ligne:
- Your own French keyboard or input method. If your computer already types French (AZERTY in France, Canadian French QWERTY, Swiss French QWERTZ or a US-International setup), keep the default. The test takes whatever your system types.
- The built-in AZERTY layout. Pick "AZERTY (French)" in the Keyboard menu and your QWERTY keyboard behaves like a French one: press 2 for é, 7 for è, 9 for ç and 0 for à. The on-screen keyboard shows the French keycaps, each coloured by the finger that should press it.
Whichever you choose, you type in the French language exactly as a French writer would, accents included. Canadian readers should note that the built-in layout is the France AZERTY; Quebec keyboards are QWERTY-based, so keep your own. On phones the built-in layout is off – hold a letter on your phone keyboard to pick é, è, ê or ç.
AZERTY: where French special characters are
Positions on a French AZERTY keyboard, and the key to press on a US QWERTY keyboard when the built-in AZERTY is switched on.
| Character | On AZERTY | On a US keyboard (built-in AZERTY) |
|---|---|---|
| é | 2 key, no Shift | 2 |
| è | 7 key, no Shift | 7 |
| ç | 9 key, no Shift | 9 |
| à | 0 key, no Shift | 0 |
| ù | Key right of M | ' |
| ê â î ô û | Dead ^ key right of P, then the vowel | [ then the vowel |
| ë ï ü | Shift + ^ key (¨), then the vowel | Shift+[ then the vowel |
| Digits 1–0 | Shift + number row | Shift+1 … Shift+0 |
| a / q, z / w, m | A and Z top left, Q and W below them, M right of L | Q, A, W, Z, ; |
| . (full stop) | Shift + the ; key | Shift+, |
The classic AZERTY has no key for œ or for capital accented letters such as À and É. The newer French AZERTY standard published in 2019 adds them; on the classic layout many people write oe instead.
What is a typing test? (test de dactylographie, c'est quoi ?)
A test de dactylographie measures how fast and how accurately you copy a text. What does a typing test consist of? You get a passage or a stream of words, a time limit, and a score. Employers in France often use a test de frappe au clavier for secretarial, reception and data-entry jobs, and training schools use it to place you at the right level. Here the test measures:
WPM (mots par minute) = (correct characters ÷ 5) ÷ minutes
Raw WPM = (all typed characters ÷ 5) ÷ minutes
Accuracy = correct keystrokes ÷ all keystrokes × 100
CPM = correct characters ÷ minutes
Worked example: in a 2 minute test you type 430 characters and 410 are correct. Your speed is (410 ÷ 5) ÷ 2 = 41 WPM, your raw speed is (430 ÷ 5) ÷ 2 = 43 WPM, and with 410 correct keystrokes out of 430 your accuracy is about 95.3%. Your CPM is 205. French job ads that ask for "200 frappes par minute" mean roughly this level – about 40 words per minute.
French typing speed levels
How fast is a fast typing test result in French? Once you know AZERTY, French speeds are close to English ones, though accents and longer words cost a few WPM at first. Typical typing test levels:
| Level | Mots par minute | About frappes par minute |
|---|---|---|
| Easy level / beginner | under 25 | under 125 |
| Average adult | 30–40 | 150–200 |
| Office and secretarial work | 45–60 | 225–300 |
| Fast typist | 70+ | 350+ |
These are typical figures, not official standards. Check the job ad or exam notice for the exact requirement, and see the average typing speed page for more detail.
Test de frappe for secrétaire médicale and other jobs
A medical-secretary test (test de frappe secrétaire médicale) often means copying a compte rendu médical: long words, abbreviations, numbers and doses. To practise, paste a real, anonymised report into the custom typing test and type it against the clock. Turn on the punctuation and numbers toggles for the standard test too, because figures and punctuation slow most people down more than plain words do.
French typing test without accents
Want a test de frappe sans accent, or even sans accent ni apostrophe? The standard French test keeps the accents, because leaving them out is a spelling error in French. If you still want a typing test in French with no accent marks – for example while you are learning where the keys are – paste unaccented French into the custom test. It gives the same score, just without the dead keys. A sample you could paste, written the way people type when they skip accents:
Je fais un test de frappe rapide en francais, sans accent, puis un test de dactylographie gratuit en ligne avec un texte simple pour voir ma vitesse.
Once that feels easy, go back to the accented test: it is the version employers use. You can also switch the language to English for a test de dactylographie en anglais.
Apprendre à taper au clavier (learning to type in French)
Dactylographie, by definition, is the skill of typing with all ten fingers without looking at the keys. If you are starting from zero, the lessons come before the test. In French:
Ici, on teste votre vitesse de frappe, mais on vous aide aussi à progresser. Apprendre à taper au clavier avec les 10 doigts se fait en ligne gratuitement : les leçons AZERTY commencent par la rangée du milieu (Q S D F – J K L M) et ajoutent deux touches à la fois. Pour apprendre à taper au clavier sans regarder, gardez les yeux sur l'écran : le clavier affiché montre la touche suivante et le doigt à utiliser. Pas besoin d'installer un logiciel gratuit pour apprendre à taper au clavier : tout fonctionne dans le navigateur, pour un enfant comme pour un adulte.
Pour apprendre à taper au clavier plus rapidement, alternez leçons, tests et jeux ; apprendre à taper au clavier avec un jeu de ballons ou une course de voitures marche très bien. Chaque leçon de dactylographie propose des exercices courts, et le test de dactylographie en ligne gratuit fonctionne en AZERTY comme en QWERTY. La vitesse de frappe au clavier moyenne d'un adulte tourne autour de 200 frappes par minute, soit environ 40 mots par minute ; ce test de vitesse de frappe au clavier vous donne la vôtre sur ordinateur. Pour un test de frappe ou un test de dactylographie en anglais, changez simplement la langue dans le menu.
Spaces count too: every press of the space bar (barre d'espace) is a character, so a clean space after each word adds to your vitesse de frappe au clavier.
How to get faster at French typing
- Learn AZERTY from the home row. Your fingers rest on Q S D F and J K L M. The French course on the typing lessons page teaches the layout two keys at a time.
- Practise the number-row accents. Type été, très, français, déjà, là until é, è, ç and à need no thought.
- Drill the circumflex. Words like être, même, forêt, côté use the dead ^ key: press, release, vowel.
- Start easy, then go long. A typing test at easy level is 30 seconds of common words, which works like a quick French typing quiz and is the easiest typing test on the site; the most difficult is a 10 minute paragraph with punctuation. Move up when your accuracy stays above 95%.
- Play in French. Every one of the typing games can use French words.