Common One-Word Sentences in the French Classics

While exploring French readability and the fact that sentence length is a key factor for English speakers learning French, I thought I’d take it to the extreme and see what are the most common one-word sentences in French literature. Here is the top 20. Note that it is highly influenced by Les Trois Mousquetaires, which is a sizeable portion of the corpus and responsible for about half the occurrences of “diable”.

AhOhNonHélasOuiQuoiEhCommentPourquoiDiableBahTiensAmenMoiBonVraimentMonsieurJamaisPardieuHé

In a different corpus less dominated by Les Trois Mousquetaires, the following were also found in the top 20:

AllonsBienAdieuRienJamais

In a modern corpus I think we would find different expletive-like exclamations than “Diable”, “Parbleu”, and “Pardieu”. A common one these days seems to be “Putain!”, or somewhat less extreme “Punaise!”. Maybe I’ll try to process the French movie subtitle corpus at some point to get a more up to date glimpse at one-word sentences in French.