Having a fairly extensive French vocabulary for food will come in handy for those visiting restaurants, especially typically French restaurants, which often have many varied ingredients that would serve you well to know.
French grammar rules with food
In general, food is referred to by its partitive article, meaning that in most instances you’re referring to an undefined amount of the food item — “some”, in other words.
This means that you use du for masculine foods, de la for feminine foods, de l’ for ones that start with a vowel sound, and des for plural foods.
For example:
Je mange de la viande. (Notice it’s NOT je mange la viande, as a native English speaker might assume.)
Only use le/la/les if you are referring to a specific food item.
Je voudrais du gâteau (“I would like (some) cake”) VERSUS Le gâteau que j’ai acheté (“The (specific) cake that I bought”)
French Food Words
These are some of the most common French words for food. They are based on general translations that would be appropriate in most scenarios from buying or ordering the end product. Sometimes French foods have different forms for their unprepared, “cooking” forms.
Vegetables (les légumes)
| asparagus | de l’asperge (f.) |
| avocado | de l’avocat (m.) |
| beets | de la betterave |
| broccoli | du brocoli |
| cabbage | du chou |
| carrot | de la carotte |
| celery | du céleri |
| corn | du maïs |
| eggplant (aubergine) | de l’aubergine (f.) |
| green (string) beans | des haricots verts |
| green peas | des pois |
| lettuce | de la laitue |
| mushrooms | du champignon |
| olive | de l’olive (f.) |
| onions | de l’oignon (m.) |
| potato | de la pomme de terre |
| pumpkin | de la citrouille |
| radish | du radis |
| spinach | des épinards |
| squash | de la courge |
| sweet pepper | du poivron |
| tomato | de la tomate |
| turnip | du navet |
Fruits (les Fruits)
| apple | de la pomme |
| banana | de la banane |
| blackberry | de la mûre |
| blueberry | de la myrtille |
| cantaloupe | du cantaloup (m.) |
| cherry | de la cerise |
| clementine | de la clémentine |
| coconut | de la noix de coco |
| cranberry | de la canneberge |
| date | de la datte |
| fig | de la figue |
| grape | du raisin |
| grapefruit | du pamplemousse |
| kiwi | du kiwi |
| lemon | du citron |
| lime | du citron vert |
| melon | du melon |
| orange | de l’orange |
| peach | de la pêche |
| pear | de la poire |
| pineapple | de l’ananas (m.) |
| plum | de la prune |
| pomegranate | de la grenade |
| raspberry | de la framboise |
| strawberry | de la fraise |
| tangerine | de la mandarine |
| watermelon | de la pastèque |
Dairy Products (les Produits Laitiers)
| milk | du lait |
| cheese | du fromage |
| eggs | des œufs |
| buttermilk | du babeurre |
| butter | du beurre |
Beverages (les Boissons)
| tea | du thé |
| iced tea | du thé glacé |
| coke | du coca, un soda |
| juice | du jus de… + fruit |
| water | de l’eau |
| sparkling water | de l’eau gazeuse |
| coffee | du café |
| beer | de la bière |
| wine | du vin |
| cocktail | du cocktail |
Beans, Nuts and Grains (les Haricots, les Noix et les Céréales)
| peanuts | de la cacahuète |
| wheat | du blé |
| barley | de l’orge (f.) |
| rice | du riz |
| beans | du haricot (m.) |
| almonds | de l’amande (f.) |
| walnuts | de la noix |
| hazelnut | de la noisette |
Condiments (les Condiments)
| salt | du sel |
| pepper | du poivre |
| mustard | de la moutarde |
| mayonnaise | de la mayonnaise |
| ketchup | du ketchup |
| honey | du miel |
| cinnamon | de la cannelle |
| nutmeg | de la muscade |
| ginger | du gingembre |
| garlic cloves | de la gousse d’ail |
| oil | de l’huile |
Meats and Seafood (des Viandes et des Fruits de Mer)
| steak | du bifteck |
| pork | du porc |
| lamb | de l’agneau (m.) |
| duck | du canard |
| rabbit | du lapin |
| goat | du chèvre |
| fish | du poisson |
| shrimp | de la crevette |
| oysters | de l’huître (f.) |
| bacon | du bacon |
| sausage | du saucisson |
| ham | du jambon |
| chicken | du poulet |
| veal | du veau |
| venison | du chevreuil |
| hen | de la poule |
| snails | de l’escargot (m.) |
| cod | du cabillaud |
| salmon | du saumon |
| tuna | du thon |
| lobster | du homard (m.) |
Prepared Food
| pasta | des pâtes |
| pizza | de la pizza |
| sandwich | du sandwich |
| hot dog | du hot-dog |
| hamburger | du hamburger |
| casserole | de la casserole |
| soup | de la soupe |
| french fries (chips) | des frites (f.) |
| potato chips (crisps) | des chips (f.) |
| salad | de la salade |
| ice cream | de la glace |
| pie | de la tourte |
| cake | du gâteau |
Where to take your newfound French food vocabulary
Food vocabulary pays off quickly in French. It comes up in restaurants, at markets, in recipes, and in everyday conversation, so what you learn here will get used. The next step is getting comfortable with how to talk about food in sentences, which means practicing the partitive article rules above until they feel natural. Saying je voudrais de la soupe instead of je voudrais la soupe is one of those small things that makes a noticeable difference to native speakers.
For aspiring home cooks or anyone interested in French cuisine, learning food vocabulary through actual cooking is genuinely effective. French cookbooks designed for language learners, like this one, combine culinary and language learning in a way that makes the vocabulary stick. And if you want to practice ordering, asking about dishes, or just making small talk about food with a native speaker, a conversation session on italki is a natural place to put it all to use.
I have a french test soon and i did not understand when to use de, de la, or de l’. your world list has made it clear for me. thank you very much.
I’m so glad this helped, Pauline! Please let me know if you have any other questions, and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment.