The Easy Guide to French Nouns

Napoleon, Paris and furry little Chartreux kittens have one thing in common—they are all nouns.

You might remember from English class that a noun is a person, place, thing or idea.

Simple, right? But what about in French?

Luckily for you, French nouns are easy to understand, and I’ve collected a list of some of the most popular nouns for people, places, animals and more, that you’ll see on a regular basis!

 

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People Nouns

French	English
la femme	the woman
l'homme	the man
le garçon	the boy
la fille	the girl
le bébé	the baby
le père	the father
la mère	the mother
le grand-père	the grandfather
la grand-mère	the grandmother
le frère	the brother
la sœur	the sister
l'oncle	the uncle
la tante	the aunt
le cousin	the cousin (male)
la cousine	the cousin (female)
le mari	the husband
la femme	the wife
le fils	the son
la fille	the daughter
l'homme intelligent	the intelligent man
la femme intelligente	the intelligent woman
l'homme paresseux	the lazy man
la femme paresseuse	the lazy woman
l'homme âgé	the old man
la femme âgée	the old woman
l'homme malade	the sick man
la femme malade	the sick woman
l'homme étranger	the foreign man
la femme étrangère	the foreign woman
l'homme actif	the active man
la femme active	the active woman

Animal Nouns

French	English
le chat	the cat
le chien	the dog
le loup	the wolf
le cheval	the horse
le chien intelligent	the intelligent dog
le chat heureux	the happy cat
le chameau	the camel
le lapin	the rabbit
le lion	the lion
le tigre	the tiger
le singe	the monkey
le serpent	the snake
le crocodile	the crocodile
l'éléphant	the elephant
le zèbre	the zebra
le cochon	the pig
le canard	the duck
le poisson	the fish
le requin	the shark
le papillon	the butterfly
le perroquet	the parrot
la grenouille	the frog
le pingouin	the penguin
le hérisson	the hedgehog

Place Nouns

French	English
l'église	the church
la vieille maison	the old house
la maison	the house
l'école	the school
le parc	the park
la plage	the beach
le restaurant	the restaurant
le café	the café
le musée	the museum
le cinéma	the cinema
le magasin	the store/shop
le stade	the stadium
le jardin	the garden
le bateau	the boat
le centre commercial	the shopping mall
le bureau	the office
la bibliothèque	the library
le pont	the bridge
la gare	the train station
l'aéroport	the airport
le monument	the monument
la montagne	the mountain
la plage	the beach

Object Nouns

French	English
l'arbre	the tree
la pomme	the apple
la chaise	the chair
le jus	the juice
le livre	the book
le stylo	the pen
le téléphone	the telephone
l'ordinateur	the computer
le sac	the bag
la clé	the key
le vélo	the bicycle
la voiture	the car
la table	the table
la télévision	the television
le couteau	the knife
la fourchette	the fork
la cuillère	the spoon
le crayon	the pencil
le sac à dos	the backpack
la lampe	the lamp
le parapluie	the umbrella
le miroir	the mirror

 

Even something as simple as nouns can become complex. Luckily, there are some great resources out there to learn new nouns (vocabulary), practice writing sentences and research doubts.

• “Schaum’s Outline of French Vocabulary” — Schaum’s Outline of French Vocabulary” introduces the vocabulary group, then offers over 300 exercises to practice what you have learned.

• FluentU — With FluentU, you have access to a curated video library of authentic French content with interactive subtitles that have an embedded multimedia dictionary.
• WordReference — Every word on WordReference includes its gender, part of speech, an example sentence and references to forum questions about the word.
• French Games — French Games has several lessons focused on vocabulary and their use in sentences.

Once you master the different ways nouns can be put into sentences, you will be able to speak and write like a native!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)