Talking about dating and relationships in French draws on a specific set of verbs, adjectives, and set phrases that don’t usually show up in a standard grammar lesson. Reciprocal verbs like s’aimer and se marier follow their own pattern, romantic adjectives cluster around a handful of recurring words, and describing where you stand with someone (single, dating, married) uses its own vocabulary bank entirely.
This post covers relationship status, asking someone out, terms of endearment, describing a partner, and talking about being in love.
Talking About Your Relationship Status
These are the words you need to describe where things stand, whether you’re filling out a dating profile or explaining your situation to a new French friend.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| célibataire | single |
| en couple | in a relationship |
| fiancé(e) | engaged |
| marié(e) | married |
| divorcé(e) | divorced |
| veuf / veuve | widower / widow |
Adjectives like célibataire, marié(e), and divorcé(e) follow the same agreement rules as any other adjective: they take an e for feminine subjects unless the word already ends in one.
Mon frère est célibataire, mais ma sœur est fiancée. (“My brother is single, but my sister is engaged.”)
Boyfriend, Girlfriend, and Other Terms
French has more than one way to refer to a boyfriend or girlfriend, and the choice depends on how formal or casual the conversation is.
- Petit ami / petite amie: the standard, neutral term for boyfriend/girlfriend, appropriate in any context.
- Copain / copine: the casual, everyday version, commonly used in spoken French among younger speakers. Note that copain/copine can also simply mean “friend,” so the meaning depends on context.
Reciprocal Verbs for Talking About Relationships
A large share of relationship vocabulary in French runs through reciprocal verbs: pronominal verbs where two or more people are doing the action to each other, like s’aimer (“to love each other”) or se disputer (“to argue with each other”).
If you haven’t worked with pronominal verbs before, our guide to French reflexive verbs covers the grammar behind them in full. Here’s how the most useful ones sound in practice:
Nous nous sommes rencontrés à Lyon, et nous nous aimons depuis dix ans. (“We met in Lyon, and we’ve loved each other for ten years.”)
Ils se sont disputés hier soir, mais ils se sont réconciliés ce matin. (“They argued last night, but they made up this morning.”)
Quand est-ce que vous vous êtes mariés ? (“When did you get married?”)
All of these use être as the helping verb in the passé composé, which is true of every reflexive and reciprocal verb, and the past participle agrees with the subject.
Asking Someone Out
Asking someone out is a peer-to-peer situation, so it almost always calls for tu rather than vous, even the first time you speak to someone.
Tu es libre vendredi soir ? (“Are you free Friday evening?”)
Ça te dit d’aller dîner ensemble ? (“Do you feel like getting dinner together?”)
On se voit ce week-end ? (“Shall we see each other this weekend?”)
A first outing itself is usually called un rendez-vous, which covers a date in the romantic sense as well as any scheduled appointment; context makes the meaning clear.
Terms of Endearment
These are built from the possessive adjective mon or ma plus a noun, the same pattern used for any possessive phrase in French.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| mon amour | my love |
| mon chéri / ma chérie | my darling |
| mon cœur | sweetheart (literally “my heart”) |
Describing Your Partner
These adjectives come up constantly in French dating profiles and everyday descriptions of a partner’s personality. Like all French adjectives, they agree in gender and number with the person they describe.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| romantique | romantic |
| charmant(e) | charming |
| sincère | sincere |
| généreux / généreuse | generous |
| drôle | funny |
| gentil(le) | kind |
| affectueux / affectueuse | affectionate |
Il est drôle et très généreux, mais un peu sérieux au travail. (“He’s funny and very generous, but a bit serious at work.”)
Talking About Being in Love
The standard adjective for “in love” is amoureux (or amoureuse for a feminine subject), typically paired with the preposition de when you name the person.
Elle est amoureuse de son collègue depuis des mois. (“She’s been in love with her coworker for months.”)
Two idiomatic expressions are commonly used about love and attraction:
- Avoir du chien literally means “to have some dog,” but it’s used to say someone is alluring or attractive, closer to “she’s got something about her” than any literal translation would suggest.
- Coup de foudre, built from coup (a strike or blow) and foudre (lightning), is the standard way to describe love at first sight.
Dès que je l’ai vue, ça a été le coup de foudre. (“The moment I saw her, it was love at first sight.”)
Next Steps
Reciprocal verbs are the grammatical backbone of most relationship talk in French, so if any of the examples above felt unfamiliar, our guide to French reflexive verbs is the place to build that foundation. And once a relationship moves toward marriage and family, our French family vocabulary guide picks up right where this one leaves off, with terms for spouses, in-laws, and children.
Vocabulary lists only go so far when it comes to dating and relationships, since so much of it depends on tone, timing, and natural delivery. A platform like italki lets you practice these exact phrases in live conversation with a native speaker, which is the fastest way to get comfortable using them naturally instead of just recognizing them on a page.
