Language through Literature

Le maître Chat ou le Chat botté — The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots


Charles Perrault · «Histoires ou contes du temps passé», 1697 · 1586 words in French · the French shelf

How long «Le maître Chat ou le Chat botté» is, and how hard

Length in French 1586 running words · 49 sentences · about 6 printed pages
Time to read about 14 minutes at a learner's pace, with the glosses to hand
Different words 356 dictionary words, averaging 32.4 words a sentence
Words glossed 356 of 356 — every one that appears in the tale
Words that appear once 191 — 54%. A word met once is a word you will not learn from this text alone
Where it stands 3 of 8 by length in the French room

277 of this tale's own 356 words, most frequent first, carry 95% of it; 103 carry 80%. Hold those and the reading is close work rather than decoding. French glues its small words to the next one, and these counts take them apart the way a dictionary does: «l’» and «d’» are words of their own here, filed under «le» and «de».

Its chapters

The room reads «Le maître Chat ou le Chat botté» in 4 scenes. The headings are the house's own; the sentence counts are the tale's.

SceneIn FrenchSentences
The Share-Out Le partage 7
Gifts for the King Présents au roi 9
The Marquis of Carabas Le marquis de Carabas 16
The Ogre’s Castle Le château de l’ogre 17

How it begins

Un meunier ne laissa pour tous biens, à trois enfants qu’il avait, que son moulin, son âne et son chat.

A miller left nothing to the three children he had, by way of an estate, but his mill, his donkey and his cat.

That first sentence is the free sample, and the only one on this page. «Le maître Chat ou le Chat botté» is part of the library — the eight French tales and the Spanish, German and Russian shelves, every word glossed, sentence-by-sentence English — for €5 a month or €39 a year, cancel whenever you like, one subscription for all four rooms. What the library costs. «Le petit Chaperon rouge» is free, entire, if you would rather read the room before you buy it, and the opening scene of «Les Fées» after it.

Shorter and longer in the same room

Le petit Chaperon rouge — 683 wordsLes Fées — 860 words Le curé de Cucugnan — 1705 wordsLa Dernière Classe — 1755 words

All eight French tales · Charles Perrault · the shelf, counted

Free editorial texts and word lists are reference resources. Interactive learning starts with one beginner lesson, one opening story scene and one grammar discovery; a free account adds a second lesson. See what the subscription opens.