Farm animals are one of the first vocabulary sets children learn in French, and they are just as useful for adults: they are concrete, they are everywhere in songs, idioms and children's books, and they carry a lot of grammar quietly.
Every sentence below uses the animal with a real verb, because a noun learned alone is a noun you will not produce in conversation.
The 17 animals
| French | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| la vache | cow | La vache mange de l'herbe. |
| le cochon | pig | Le cochon aime la boue. |
| le cheval | horse | Le cheval court dans le champ. |
| l'âne | donkey | L'âne porte un lourd panier. |
| le mouton | sheep | Le mouton a une laine douce. |
| la chèvre | goat | La chèvre grimpe sur les rochers. |
| la poule | hen | La poule pond un œuf. |
| le coq | rooster | Le coq chante le matin. |
| la dinde | turkey | La dinde vit dans la basse-cour. |
| le canard | duck | Le canard nage dans l'étang. |
| l'oie | goose | L'oie garde la ferme. |
| le poussin | chick | Le poussin suit sa mère. |
| le lapin | rabbit | Le lapin creuse un terrier. |
| le chat | cat | Le chat chasse les souris. |
| le chien | dog | Le chien garde les moutons. |
| la souris | mouse | La souris se cache dans la paille. |
| le lama | llama | Le lama vit près des moutons. |
The male, the female and the young
French almost never reuses one word with a masculine and feminine ending here. Each is a separate word, and this is where learners lose marks.
| Male | Female | Young |
|---|---|---|
| le taureau | la vache | le veau |
| le coq | la poule | le poussin |
| le bélier | la brebis | l'agneau |
| le bouc | la chèvre | le chevreau |
| le cheval | la jument | le poulain |
| le canard | la cane | le caneton |
| le cochon, le verrat | la truie | le porcelet |
The sounds they make
Animal noises are not universal, they are conventions of each language, and French has its own. These come up constantly in songs and with children.
| Animal | The verb | The sound |
|---|---|---|
| le coq | chanter | cocorico |
| la vache | meugler | meuh |
| le mouton | bêler | bêê |
| le cochon | grogner | groin groin |
| le canard | cancaner | coin coin |
| le chien | aboyer | ouaf ouaf |
| le chat | miauler | miaou |
| l'âne | braire | hi han |
Two grammar points hiding in the list
Le cheval becomes les chevaux in the plural. Nouns ending in -al almost all do this: un animal, des animaux, un journal, des journaux. It is irregular in English terms but perfectly regular in French, and it is worth learning as a pattern rather than as seven separate exceptions.
La vache mange de l'herbe uses the partitive article, which has no English equivalent. De l'herbe means some grass, an unspecified quantity. You cannot drop it the way English does: la vache mange herbe is not a sentence. Du, de la, de l' and des are compulsory.