Le Mot

About Le Mot

Le Mot is a word game in French: the rules, the interface and every answer are in French. Louan Bengmah (@louanben) put it online on 10 January 2022 as a French take on Josh Wardle's Wordle, and the code is public on GitHub as wordle-fr. The site describes it as free, online and without ads.

Every day one five-letter French word is chosen, the same for all players, and you have six tries. After each try the letters change colour: green for a letter in the right place, orange for a letter that is in the word but elsewhere, and dark for a letter that is not in it. The keyboard is laid out in AZERTY, and accents are left out, so ÉTAPE is typed ETAPE. When you finish, a counter shows the time left until the next word, which changes at midnight Paris time.

An archive button opens every past day since the start, so a new player can work back through hundreds of words. The game has also become a pair of paper puzzle books published by Marabout, a Version Classique and a harder Version Extrême, each with 130 new grids.

Le Mot suits French speakers and learners who want Wordle with French vocabulary and a familiar keyboard, and players who like to catch up on old puzzles.

How to play Le Mot

1. Open wordle.louan.me and type a five-letter French word on the AZERTY keyboard, without accents.
2. Press enter and read the colours: green is the right letter in the right place, orange is in the word but elsewhere, dark is not in the word.
3. Use the hints to narrow down your next guess, and find the word within six tries.
4. Share your result, then open the archive to play earlier days if you want more.

Tips

• French five-letter words often end in E, ER or S: an early guess that tests these endings saves tries.
• Accents are ignored, so think of words such as ÉCRAN or FÊTES without them.
• Use the archive to practise on old words without breaking your daily streak.

Questions