In a lot of textbooks, French animal vocabulary is scattered throughout different parts of the book, and the authors will try to combine the vocabulary lesson with whatever the grammar lesson of that section of the book is (for example, they might teach farm animals as they’re teaching present tense, pets during a past tense lesson, etc.).
But when I was first learning French, I never liked the arbitrary separation between different vocab categories. I wanted to learn all the most common animals together, and since I didn’t get it back then, I’m creating it now. Here’s a list of 64 common animals (nouns) with their French translations. At the bottom are also some fun verbs that might be applicable to some of these French animals vocabulary words.
Categories of Animals
The basic types of animals shown below are mammals (mammifères), amphibians (amphibiens), reptiles (reptiles), and insects (insectes). Just like other nouns in French, they can be masculine or feminine.
Differences between Masculine and Feminine forms
Even though these nouns are gendered, they also are generally meant to apply to both males and females of that species. If you need to specify that a certain animal is male or female, in most instances you would add mâle or femelle after the noun (because most French adjectives follow the noun).
In some cases, the male and female versions of the animal have different names (it’s like how in English, a male horse is also called a stallion and a female horse is a mare). The alternate versions of the animal names are also included in the table below, when applicable.
In the water (Dans l’eau)
dolphin
le dauphin
fish
le poisson
octopus
le poulpe
otter
la loutre
seal
le phoque
shark
le requin
squid
le calmar
whale
la baleine
In the forest (DANS LE FORÊT)
bear
l’ours
beaver
le castor
bobcat
le lynx roux
coyote
le coyote
deer
le cerf
fox
le renard
moose
l’orignal
rabbit
le lapin
raccoon
le raton laveur
squirrel
l’écureuil
turtle
la tortue
weasel
la belette
wildcat
le chat sauvage
wolf
le loup
HOUSEHOLD Pets (LES animaux de compagnie)
cat
le chat
dog
le chien
ferret
le furet
hamster
le hamster
rat
le rat
In the desert/SAVANNAH (Dans le désert/la savane)
camel
le chameau
elephant
l’éléphant
giraffe
la girafe
hippopotamus
l’hippopotame
lion
le lion
zebra
le zèbre
In the jungle (Dans la jungle)
gorilla
le gorille
jaguar
le jaguar
monkey
le singe (m) or la guenon (f)
panda
le panda
tiger
le tigre
On the farm (À la ferme)
duck
le canard (a female duck is une cane)
goat
la chèvre (a male goat is un bouc)
goose
l’oie (a male goose is un jars)
horse
le cheval (m), a mare, is une jument
pig
le cochon
sheep
le mouton (a male sheep, a ram, is un bélier; a female sheep, a ewe, is une brebis)
In the sky (DANS LE CIEL)
bat
la chauve-souris
bird
l’oiseau
butterfly
le papillon
dragonfly
la libellule
owl
le hibou
parrot
le perroquet
eagle
l’aigle
swan
le cygne
Bugs and small creatures (LES Insectes et petites créatures)
