Language/French/Vocabulary/Bird

The birds: les oiseaux

Welcome to our French vocabulary lesson on birds, or "les oiseaux" in French! In this lesson, you will learn various bird names and related vocabulary to enhance your French language skills. After mastering this lesson, feel free to explore other exciting topics such as French drinks, French love vocabulary, and even French martial arts terms! 🐦🇫🇷 Happy learning!

Bird Words

English	French Translation
hummingbird	colibri
blackbird	merle
rooster	coq
crane	grue
dove	colombe
eagle	aigle
falcon	faucon
nightingale	rossignol
ostrich	autruche
owl	hibou
partridge	perdrix
peacock	paon
penguin	pingouin
pigeon	pigeon
raven	corbeau
robin	rouge-gorge
sparrow	moineau
stork	cigogne
swallow	hirondelle
swan	cygne
turkey	dindon
vulture	vautour
canard	duck
poule	chicken

Expressions with birds

Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid

• Translation: Every little bit helps
• Literal meaning: Little by little, the bird builds its nest

Comme un coq en pâte

• Literally: Like a rooster in dough
• Meaning: who has a comfortable and cozy existence
• Example: “Quand il est chez sa grand-mère, il est comme un coq en pâte.”

“When he’s at his grandmother’s, he’s like a rooster in dough.”

Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps

• Literally: One swallow doesn't make spring
• Meaning: One swallow doesn't make a summer
• English equivalent: One swallow does not a summer make.

The proverb has two possible meanings:

1. Do not draw conclusions from a single fact or a single element.
2. And, more generally: one must not rely too quickly on appearances; One person is not enough to achieve a major goal.

Politique de l'autruche

• Litterally: the ostrich policy
• Meaning: Refusal to accept danger.
• Origin: This expression recalls the legend that ostriches burrow their heads in the sand when they are afraid, which prevents them from seeing what threatens them.
• Example: "Appliquer la politique de l'autriche" means that one refuses to see the danger where it is.

Un froid de canard

• Litterally: cold of a duck
• Meaning: A big cold

Être un vautour

• Litterally: "be a vulture"
• Meaning: "be ruthless"
• Synonymous: être un requin (be a shark)

Être le dindon de la farce

• Litterally: "Being the stuffing turkey"
• Meaning: Getting caught up in a case.

Être une poule mouillée

• Litterally: Be a wet hen
• Meaning: Be a coward
• Closest English expression: Be a chicken

C'est la poule qui chante qui a fait l'œuf

• Litterally: The singing hen has laid the egg
• Meaning: The one who has just made a mistake or acted fooly speaks the loudest
• Closest English expression: the guilty dog barks the loudest

Un cygne noir

• Literally: a black swan

la bouche en cul de poule

A "cul de poule" mouth is a mouth whose lips form a circle because the corners are relatively close together. In its figurative sense, this expression means that a person takes on a honeyed air, in order to know or to obtain something.

Tuer la poule aux oeufs d’or

Meaning: To greedily destroy a source of promising profits. Origin: This expression finds its origin in a fable by La Fontaine: "l'abus d'une source de profits prometteurs peut la tarir définitivement".

canard boiteux

To be an ill-suited individual.

Ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard

• Ils ne cassent pas trois pattes à un canard. They're not that great.
• Tu ne casses pas trois pattes à un canard. You're not that great.

passer du coq à l’âne

• Meaning: to suddenly change the subject, jump between subjects, make a non sequitur
• Literally: to pass from the rooster to the donkey

Faute de grives, on mange des merles

• Meaning: when you don't have what you want, you have to know how to be satisfied with what you have.

Other Lessons

• Farm
• False Friends
• Tools
• Tongue Twisters
• Weather
• Parts of the Body
• Election
• Family
• Insects
• Travel