French Food Vocabulary

Help For Your Holidays

Your French food vocabulary will be useful when you are on holidays in France or another country where French is spoken for when you want to order something to eat in a café or restaurant or shop.

Most French people will help you out if you can't speak the language, but they much prefer it if you make an effort and try to speak it a little. Even if you only manage to say "Bonjour, madame" – "Good morning, madam", they are pleased to hear you at least try.

However, with a little French vocabulary you may at least have an understanding of some basic words or phrases for your food shopping.

Let's begin with a simple shopping trip with some useful phrases to help you.

Apart from the smaller shops and market stalls which are very good indeed, you may also have the bigger supermarkets for your shopping and these include the Géant, Casino, Intermarché and Carrefour.

If you are shopping in one of the supermarkets you may need some money for the trolley – you will need some euro coins.

Where To Start With Your 
French Food Vocabulary

If you don't know where to buy something, you may start with:

Where can I buy ..? - Où est-ce que je peux acheter...?

Where is the supermarket? - Où est le supermarché?

Where is the bakers? - Où est le boulangerie?

Where is the market? - Où est le marché?

Do you sell....? - Est-ce-que vous-vendez....?

Bread - du pain

Milk - du lait 

Fruit - des fruits

A litre of - un litre de

A bottle of... - une bouteille de...

Beer - bière

Water - eau

Wine - vin

A can of... - une canette de...

Coke - coca

Tonic water - tonic

A packet of... - un paquet de...

Biscuits - biscuits

Sugar - sucre

Cheese - fromage

Ham - jambon

Butter - beurre

Vegetables - légumes

Potatoes - pommes de terre

Cabbage - le chou

Carrots  - carottes

Salad - la salade

Herbs - herbes

Green beans - haricot verts

Apples - pommes

Pears - poires

A loaf of bread - un pain

A baguette - une baguette

Six eggs - six œufs

A tin of... - une boȋte de...

Tomatoes - tomates

Peas - petits pois

A jar of... - un pot de...

Jam - confiture

Honey - miel

Fish - le poisson

Beef - le bœuf

Lamb - l'agneau

Veal - le veau

Pork - le porc

Sausage - la sausisse

Pastry - la pâtisserie

These have been just a basic guide for you, but I hope they will be useful.

You might also find French Cooking Terms & Oven Temperature Conversion helpful too.

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