The Little Prince: 40 words to know before you read it
The 40 words Antoine de Saint-Exupery uses again and again in The Little Prince that are outside the 4,000 most common in English. Learn them first and the opening chapters read much more easily. Each comes with its pronunciation and a sentence from the book.
prince/ˈpɹɪns/184× in the book
He has gone to sleep…” And that is how I made the acquaintance of the little prince.
sheep/ˈʃip/41× in the book
It said: “If you please — draw me a sheep!”
geographer/dʒiˈɑɡɹəfɝ/23× in the book
“I am a geographer,” said the old gentleman.
baobab20× in the book
It was in this way that I heard, on the third day, about the catastrophe of the baobabs.
lamplighter/ˈɫæmˌpɫaɪtɝ/17× in the book
There was just enough room on it for a street lamp and a lamplighter.
volcano/vɑɫˈkeɪnoʊ/15× in the book
He carefully cleaned out his active volcanoes.
sunset/ˈsənˌsɛt/15× in the book
Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of your sad little life… For a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset.
tame/ˈteɪm/14× in the book
“I am not tamed.”
constrictor/kənˈstɹɪktɝ/13× in the book
It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal.
thorn/ˈθɔɹn/13× in the book
“Even flowers that have thorns?”
explorer/ɪksˈpɫɔɹɝ/13× in the book
Here is an explorer!”
conceited/kənˈsitəd/11× in the book
The second planet was inhabited by a conceited man.
tippler10× in the book
The next planet was inhabited by a tippler.
switchman8× in the book
“Good morning”, said the railway switchman.
yawn/ˈjɔn/8× in the book
And, after working with all this painstaking precision, she yawned and said: “Ah!
extinct/ɪkˈstɪŋkt/8× in the book
He also had one volcano that was extinct.
inhabit/ˌɪnˈhæbət/8× in the book
Remember, I had crashed in the desert a thousand miles from any inhabited region.
magnificent/mæɡˈnɪfəsənt/8× in the book
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest.
mil/ˈmɪɫ/7× in the book
The first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand, a thousand miles from any human habitation.
pulley/ˈpʊɫi/7× in the book
“Everything is ready for use: the pulley, the bucket, the rope…” He laughed, touched the rope, and set the pulley to working.
lighted/ˈɫaɪtəd/7× in the book
And he lighted his lamp again.
globe/ˈɡɫoʊb/7× in the book
… and added to himself, “This flower is a very complex creature…” “At night I want you to put me under a glass globe.
bushes/ˈbʊʃəz/5× in the book
“It is true, isn’t it, that sheep eat little bushes?”
muzzle/ˈməzəɫ/5× in the book
I will draw you a muzzle for your sheep.
asteroid/ˈæstɝˌɔɪd/5× in the book
I have serious reason to believe that the planet from which the little prince came is the asteroid known as B-612.
obey/oʊˈbeɪ/5× in the book
… “if I ordered a general to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not obey me, that would not be the fault of the general.
butterfly/ˈbətɝˌfɫaɪ/5× in the book
Does he collect butterflies?”
disturb/dɪˈstɝb/5× in the book
Again the little prince disturbed my thoughts: “And you actually believe that the flowers — ” “Oh, no!”
pencil/ˈpɛnsəɫ/5× in the book
And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing.
elephant/ˈɛɫəfənt/5× in the book
It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.
queer/ˈkwɪɹ/4× in the book
What a queer idea!”
thirst/ˈθɝst/4× in the book
And yet my little man seemed neither to be straying uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting from fatigue or hunger or thirst or fear.
thirsty/ˈθɝsti/4× in the book
“He has never been either hungry or thirsty.
salute/səˈɫut/4× in the book
“It is to raise in salute when people acclaim me.
petal/ˈpɛtəɫ/4× in the book
They had only one ring of petals; they took up no room at all; they were a trouble to nobody.
scarcely/ˈskɛɹsɫi/4× in the book
It was a question of life or death for me: I had scarcely enough drinking water to last a week.
sorrow/ˈsɑɹoʊ/4× in the book
And once again, without understanding why, I had a queer sense of sorrow.
exclaim/ɪkˈskɫeɪm/4× in the book
Then they would exclaim: “Oh, what a pretty house that is!”
cough/ˈkɑf/4× in the book
Embarrassed over having let herself be caught on the verge of such a naïve untruth, she coughed two or three times, in order to put the little prince in the wrong.
flush/ˈfɫəʃ/4× in the book
And he flushed.
Pronunciation: ipa-dict (MIT), from Wiktionary.
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