Food in French: 20 Everyday Words, Plus How to Order Like a Local
By Miracle Team ·
Nobody needs convincing to learn food words in French — the entire country is one long argument for it. Food vocabulary is also the French you will use soonest: within an hour of landing you will want bread, coffee and something sweet. Here are the 20 words to start with, the sounds to watch, and the three sentences that turn the list into lunch.
Bakery and basics
| French | Sounds like | English |
|---|---|---|
| le pain | luh PAN (nasal) | bread |
| le fromage | luh fro-MAZH | cheese |
| l’œuf | LUHF | egg |
| le riz | luh REE | rice |
| le lait | luh LAY | milk |
| le café | luh ka-FAY | coffee |
The famous egg trick: one egg is un œuf (“uhn nuhf”), but eggs are des œufs — “day zuh”. The f and the s both vanish in the plural. Order deux œufs (“duh zuh”) at breakfast and you will sound suspiciously fluent.
Café and fast food
| French | Sounds like | English |
|---|---|---|
| la pizza | lah peed-ZAH | pizza |
| le hamburger | luh am-bur-GAIR | hamburger |
| le hot-dog | luh ot-DOG | hot dog |
| le sandwich | luh sond-WEECH | sandwich |
| les frites | lay FREET | fries |
| la soupe | lah SOOP | soup |
| la salade | lah sa-LAD | salad |
Les frites is always plural — like English “fries” — and the borrowed words (pizza, sandwich, hot-dog) keep roughly their sound but gain a French article and melody.
The sweet section
| French | Sounds like | English |
|---|---|---|
| les crêpes | lay KREP | pancakes |
| le gâteau | luh gah-TOH | cake |
| le biscuit | luh bees-KWEE | cookie |
| la glace | lah GLAS | ice cream |
| le beignet | luh ben-YAY | donut |
| le chocolat | luh sho-ko-LAH | chocolate |
| le pop-corn | luh pop-KORN | popcorn |
Silent finals everywhere: biscuit is “bees-kwee”, chocolat is “sho-ko-lah”. If a final letter tempts you, assume it is silent — the full rule set is in our French pronunciation guide.
The three sentences that order anything
- Je voudrais…, s’il vous plaît. — I would like…, please. (zhuh voo-DRAY … seel voo PLEH) Je voudrais un café et un croissant, s’il vous plaît. This one polite formula orders every item on this page.
- C’est combien ? — How much is it? (say kom-bee-AN) The answer comes back in numbers — trois euros cinquante — which is why the French numbers guide pairs so well with this list.
- L’addition, s’il vous plaît. — The bill, please. (lah-dee-see-ON)
And remember the password before all of them: walk in with a clear Bonjour ! — in France the greeting is not optional, as we explained in the French greetings guide.
The meals, while you are here
le petit-déjeuner (breakfast — literally “the little lunch”), le déjeuner (lunch), le dîner (dinner), and the schoolchild’s sacred le goûter — the 4 pm snack, usually involving le pain and le chocolat at once.
Make the words stick before the trip
Play them: the free French food game matches pictures to these exact words, spelling mode makes you type fromage and gâteau accents and all, and memory mode turns review into a card game. Fruit and vegetables have their own boards too — fruits (la pomme, la banane…) and vegetables (la carotte, la tomate…) — so the whole market is covered. Then rehearse the ordering lines out loud: next time you make coffee at home, narrate it — Je voudrais un café… merci ! Kitchen practice is free and nobody hears your mistakes.
Every word on this page is in Learn French for Beginners with a picture and native-speaker audio — plus thousands more, from market stalls to restaurant menus. Download it free on Google Play and be ready to order deux œufs like you have done it all your life.