Kitchen vocabulary belongs to a room you stand in every day, which makes it some of the fastest French to learn: you can put your hand on almost all of it. This poster is the twenty utensils that fill a French kitchen, each one with its article, so le and la are learnt at the same time as the word instead of being guessed at later.
What makes this set worth more than a list is how many of these words lead a second life. La casserole is not a casserole, un verre is both the glass and the material it is made of, and the difference between une poêle and un poêle is one article and an entire appliance. Those are the ones to read twice.
The 20 kitchen utensils
| French | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| la poêle | frying pan | Je fais cuire une omelette dans la poêle. |
| la casserole | saucepan | L'eau des pâtes bout dans la casserole. |
| la cocotte | casserole dish, Dutch oven | Le bœuf bourguignon mijote dans la cocotte. |
| le saladier | mixing bowl, salad bowl | Mélange la farine et les œufs dans un saladier. |
| la passoire | colander, sieve | Égoutte les pâtes dans la passoire. |
| la spatule | spatula, turner | Retourne la crêpe avec la spatule. |
| la cuillère en bois | wooden spoon | Remue la sauce avec une cuillère en bois. |
| la louche | ladle | Sers la soupe avec la louche. |
| la pince | tongs | J'attrape la viande avec une pince. |
| le fouet | whisk | Bats les œufs au fouet. |
| le couteau | knife | Ce couteau ne coupe plus très bien. |
| la planche à découper | chopping board | Coupe les légumes sur la planche à découper. |
| l'épluche-légume | vegetable peeler | J'épluche les carottes avec l'épluche-légume. |
| la râpe | grater | Passe le fromage à la râpe. |
| le verre doseur | measuring jug | Verse 200 ml de lait dans le verre doseur. |
| l'assiette | plate | Il y a des assiettes propres dans le placard. |
| les couverts | cutlery | Tu peux sortir les couverts, s'il te plaît ? |
| le verre | glass | Je bois un verre d'eau avant le repas. |
| la tasse | cup, mug | Je prends une tasse de café le matin. |
| le tire-bouchon | corkscrew | Passe-moi le tire-bouchon pour ouvrir la bouteille. |
The verbs that go with them
A poster of objects only gets you halfway. These are the verbs and phrases that get said around them, at the stove and at the table, and most of them are worth learning as whole expressions.
| French | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| faire la cuisine, cuisiner | to cook | Faire la cuisine is the everyday one; cuisiner sounds a little more deliberate |
| mettre le couvert | to lay the table | Mettre la table works too, and is what most families actually say |
| débarrasser la table | to clear the table | Often shortened to just débarrasser |
| faire la vaisselle | to do the washing-up | La vaisselle is the dishes; le lave-vaisselle is the dishwasher |
| éplucher | to peel | Les épluchures are the peelings, and the peeler itself is usually un économe |
| couper, découper | to cut, to cut up | Découper is to cut into pieces, which is where la planche à découper comes from |
| râper | to grate | Du fromage râpé, the bag of grated cheese in every French fridge |
| mélanger, remuer | to mix, to stir | Mélanger combines things, remuer keeps them moving in the pan |
| fouetter | to whisk, to whip | La crème fouettée is whipped cream, and un fouet is also a whip |
| une cuillère à soupe, une cuillère à café | a tablespoon, a teaspoon | French recipes measure in these: 15 ml and 5 ml |
| à feu doux, à feu vif | on a low heat, on a high heat | What a French recipe says instead of giving you a temperature |
Two things worth knowing
The three pots are where English speakers go wrong most often. Une casserole is a saucepan, the deep pan with one long handle you boil pasta in, and it is never the baked dish English calls a casserole. The heavy round pot with two side handles and a lid is une cocotte, which is what you want for a stew or a pot roast, and une cocotte-minute is a pressure cooker. Une poêle is the shallow frying pan. The article matters more than usual here: la poêle is that pan, while le poêle, spelled exactly the same, is a wood-burning stove. Both are pronounced pwal, one syllable.
Several of these words do double duty. Un verre is a drinking glass and also the material, so une bouteille en verre is a glass bottle and prendre un verre is to go for a drink. Un couvert is a single place setting, les couverts are the cutlery, mettre le couvert is to lay the table, and couvert on its own is simply the past participle of couvrir, covered. And l'épluche-légume is the name on the poster, but in a real French kitchen you are far more likely to hear un économe.