Language/French/Vocabulary/Animal

Les animaux (animals)

Here is a word list to learn the names of animals.

Enjoy !

Words

French	English
la baleine	whale
la chèvre	goat
la girafe	giraffe
la limace	slug
la méduse	jellyfish
la poule	hen
la raie	skate
la sauterelle	grasshopper
la tortue	turtle
la vache	cow
l'araignée	spider
le canard	duck
le cerf	stag
le chat	cat
le cheval	horse
le chien	dog
le cochon	pig
le coq	cock
le criquet	locust
le crocodile	crocodile
le dauphin	dolphin
le faon	fawn
le hamster	hamster
le hérisson	hedgehog
le lapin	rabbit
le lion	lion
le loup	wolf
le morse	walrus
le moustique	mosquito
la mouche	fly
le mouton	sheep
le phoque	seal
le serpent	snake
le renard	fox
le requin	shark
le rhinocéros	rhinoceros
le sanglier	wild boar
le singe	monkey
le tigre	tiger
le zèbre	zebra
l'éléphant	elephant
l'escargot	snail
l'oiseau	bird
l'orque	killer-whale
l'ours	bear
le kangourou	kangaroo
Un écureuil	A squirrel
Une grenouille	A frog

Expressions

Faire l'autruche / pratiquer la politique de l'autruche

We use this expression to talk about someone who refuses to face reality and prefers to bury his head in the ground "like an ostrich".

écraser une mouche avec un marteau-pilon

• Litteraly: crush a fly with a hammer
• Meaning: Take disproportionate measures to resolve a problem.

Appeller un chat un chat

• litteraly: call a cat a cat
• Meaning: Say thing frankly

Chat échaudé craint l'eau froide

• Litteraly: scalded cat fears cold water
• Meaning: every unhappy experience serves as a lesson of caution

Il pleut comme vache qui pisse

• Register: familiar
• literally: It rains like cow who pees.
• English Meaning: It’s raining very hard.
• French Meaning: Il pleut très fort.

rire comme une baleine

• Meaning: to laugh one’s head off, to roar with laughter

• Lit.: to laugh like a whale

• Example: Quand elle m’a raconté l’histoire, j’ai ri comme une baleine. When she told me the story, I laughed my head off.

• Note: you might also see se marrer comme une baleine as a variation of this idiom. (Se marrer is just an informal word for rire.)

être fait comme un rat

• Meaning: to be cornered, to have no escape, to be trapped

• Lit.: to be trapped like a rat

• Example: Dès que la police a encerclé la maison, le suspect était fait comme un rat. As soon as the police surrounded the house, the suspect was trapped.

• Note: fait can be used as an informal word for “trapped”.

être serrés comme des sardines

• Meaning: to be packed like sardines, to be crowded very close together

• Lit.: to be packed like sardines

• Example: Les voyageurs étaient serrés comme des sardines. The passengers were packed like sardines.

sauter du coq à l’âne

• Meaning: to jump from one subject to another, to suddenly change the subject

• Lit.: to jump from the rooster to the donkey

• Example: Il saute du coq à l’âne sans arrêt. He constantly jumps from one subject to another.

• Note: you may see this idiom used with passer instead of sauter. Both variations have the same meaning.

avoir d’autres chats à fouetter

• Meaning: to have other fish to fry

• Lit.: to have other cats to whip

• Example: Je ne peux pas sortir ce soir, j’ai d’autres chats à fouetter. I can’t go out tonight, I’ve got other fish to fry.

être rusé comme un renard

• Meaning: to be as cunning as a fox, to be sly

Lit: to be cunning like a fox

• Example: Je ne ferais pas confiance à Bruno, il est rusé comme un renard. I wouldn’t trust Bruno, he’s as sly as a fox.

quand les poules auront des dents

• Meaning: pigs might fly, when pigs fly

• Lit.: when hens have teeth

• Example:

• • Un jour, je serai un millionnaire. Oui, quand les poules auront des dents !

“One day, I’ll be a millionaire. Yes, and pigs might fly!”

avoir un chat dans la gorge

• Meaning: to have a frog in one’s throat, to be hoarse

• Lit.: to have a cat in one’s throat

• Example: Il a eu un chat dans la gorge pendant son discours.

He had a frog in his throat during his speech.

temps de chien

• Meaning: dreadful weather

• Lit.: dog’s weather

• Example: Il fait un temps de chien !

It’s dreadful weather!

revenons à nos moutons !

• Meaning: let’s get back to the topic at hand, let’s get back on track (after a digression)

• Lit.: let’s come back to our sheep!

• Example: << Nous avons encore changé de sujet ! Alors, revenons à nos moutons ! >>

“We’ve changed the subject again! Right, let’s get back on track!”

parler le français comme une vache espagnole

• Meaning: to speak poor French, to speak French really badly

• Lit.: to speak French like a Spanish cow

• Example: Je ne peux pas du tout le comprendre, il parle le français comme une vache espagnole.

I can’t understand him at all, his French is awful.

en parlant du loup

• Meaning: speaking of the devil

• Lit.: speaking of the wolf

• Example: Tiens, en parlant du loup, voilà Paul qu’arrive.

“Hey, speaking of the devil, here comes Paul now.”

• Note: in the same way that we say “speak of the devil” in English, you can also say quand on parle du loup in French.