French Animal Names

On this page you’ll learn the names for more than one hundred animals in French. We’ve broken this vocabulary list down into the following categories: Pets, farm animals, forest animals, sea animals, reptiles and insects.

Pets – Les Animaux Domestiques

When talking about dogs and cats it is necessary to get the gender correct. A male dog is un chien and a female dog is une chienne. The same goes for cats. A male cat is un chat and a femle cat is une chatte.

Interesting, there is no gender for puppies and kittens. Both are masculine. Hence, a puppy is un chiot and a kitten is un chaton.

bird un oiseau
cat un chat
dog un chien
gold fish un poisson rouge
hamster un hamster
kitten un chaton
parakeet une perruche
puppy un chiot

Farm animals – Les animaux de la ferme

For farm animals, the word for chicken can cause a bit of confusion. When talking about the living animal, a rooster is un coq and a female chicken is une poule. The cooked bird that you eat is called le poulet.

There are also different words for a living pig and and pork meat. The living animal is called un cochon (or une cochonne in the feminine form) and the meat is called le porc.

billy goat un bouc
boar un anglier
bull un taureau
chicken, hen une poule
cown une vache
donkey un âne
duck un canard
ewe une brebis
female pig une truie
goat une chèvre
horse un cheval
lamb un agneau
mare une jument
ox un bœuf
pig un cochon
pony un poney
rabbit un lapin
ram un bélier
rooster un coq
sheep un mouton
turkey une dinde

Forest animals – les animaux de la forêt

The words for big game can cause a bit of confusion. For deer, a male deer is un cerf and a female deer is une biche. There are several words for moose. In Europe a moose is un elan while a moose is un original in Canada.

Interestingly, for the word for bear, un ours, both the -r and the -s are pronounced. One last note on forest animals. The word for owl is, une chouette. Interesting, “C’est chouette!” means “it’s nice!” or “it’s neat!”.

bat un chauve-souris
bear un ours
beaver un castor
deer un cerf
fox un renard
hare un lièvre
mouse un souris
owl une chouette
racoon un raton laveur
rat un rat
squirrel un écureuil
wolf un loup

Sea animals – les animaux de la mer

French vocabulary for fish and sea animals tends to be a bit difficult as the words are significantly different from English. There is one big exception: une crabe means a crab.

Three kids of fish that are commonly eaten have words that are close to English: le thon (tuna), le saumon (salmon) and la truite (trout). The word for haddock is very different: l’aiglefin.

catfish un poisson-chat
crab un crabe
dolphin un dauphin
eel une anguille
fish un poisson
jellyfish une méduse
lamprey une lamproie
lobster un homard
manatee un lamantin
mussel une moule
octopus une pieuvre
orca un orque
oyster une huître
penguin un manchot
pike un brochet
salmon un saumon
sardine une sardine
sea lion un lion de mer
seal une phoque
shark un requin
shellfish un coquillage
stingray une pastenague
trout une truite
walrus un morse
whale une baleine

Zoo animals – les animaux du zoo

Words for the following list of zoo animals tend to be quite easy as they’re very similar to English. The big exception is the word for monkey: un singe.

The word for gorilla is interesting in that with an -ille spelling, one would think that it is feminine. However, it is un gorille. The words for kangouroo and orangutan come from other languages and are thus masculine: un kangourou and un orangutan.

camel un chameau
cheetah un guépard
elephant un éléphant
giant panda un grand panda
giraffe une girafe
hippopotamus un hippopotame
jaguar un jaguar
kangaroo un kangourou
lion un lion
monkey un singe
orangutan un orang-outang
panda un panda
panther une panthère
polar bear un ours polaire
rhinoceros un rhinocéros
tiger un tigre
zebra un zèbre

Reptiles

Reptile words are almost all based on their Latin names and thus very similar to their English equivalents. The biggest exception is the word for toad: un crapaud. The French word for snake is un serpant. In English, the word serpent is synonymous for snake.

alligator un alligator
crocodile une crocodile
frog une grenouille
lizard un lézard
snake un serpant
toad un crapaud
turtle une tortue

Insects

The following list also contains some creatures which are not necessarily insects are able to be included in this category. Interestingly, there is no specific word for moth.

The word for butterfly is un papillon. The word for moth is un papillon de nuit, which translates to “a butterfly of the night”.