La cuisine is the room a French household actually lives in, and it is the one an A1 learner can describe fastest, because almost everything in it is a concrete object you can point at. Twenty nouns and a handful of prepositions are enough to say where you make your coffee, where the plates are kept and what is in the fridge.
This poster walks the room in order: the four appliances first, then the surfaces and the furniture, then what you cook with, then what you eat with. If you want the tools on their own, in more detail, from la cocotte to le tire-bouchon, that is the French Kitchen Utensils poster. This one is the room they sit in.
Learn every word with its article. Nothing about a kitchen lets you guess gender: le placard and la casserole, le verre and la tasse, le couteau and la cuillère. The poster prints le and la with the word for that reason, and the table below does the same.
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The words English speakers get wrong in French
False friends that look like English and mean something else, the numbers that turn into arithmetic, and the expressions that make no sense translated word for word.
- False friends, with what the word really means and the word you wanted
- Seventy to a hundred, written out, with the Belgian and Swiss forms
- Everyday expressions, and what they actually do in a conversation
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The 20 words on the poster
| French | English | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| le réfrigérateur | fridge | Le lait est dans le réfrigérateur. |
| la cuisinière | cooker, stove | J’allume la cuisinière pour faire chauffer l’eau. |
| le micro-ondes | microwave | Je réchauffe mon assiette au micro-ondes. |
| l’évier (m.) | kitchen sink | Il y a encore des verres sales dans l’évier. |
| le plan de travail | worktop, countertop | Je coupe les légumes sur le plan de travail. |
| le placard | cupboard | Les assiettes sont dans le placard du haut. |
| la table | table | On mange à la table de la cuisine tous les soirs. |
| la chaise | chair | Prends une chaise et assieds-toi. |
| les ustensiles (m.) | utensils | Les ustensiles sont accrochés au-dessus du plan de travail. |
| la poêle | frying pan | Je fais cuire une omelette dans la poêle. |
| la casserole | saucepan | L’eau des pâtes bout dans la casserole. |
| la passoire | colander, sieve | Égoutte les pâtes dans la passoire. |
| la planche à découper | chopping board | Coupe le pain sur la planche à découper. |
| le couteau | knife | Ce couteau ne coupe plus très bien. |
| la cuillère en bois | wooden spoon | Remue la sauce avec une cuillère en bois. |
| le torchon | tea towel | Essuie tes mains avec le torchon. |
| l’assiette (f.) | plate | Mets les assiettes sur la table, s’il te plaît. |
| les couverts (m.) | cutlery | Tu peux sortir les couverts ? |
| le verre | glass | Je bois un verre d’eau avant le repas. |
| la tasse | cup, mug | Je prends une tasse de café le matin. |
The rest of the kitchen
Twenty more words for the things that are in every French kitchen but did not fit on the poster. These are the ones that come up the moment you talk about a real room rather than a picture of one.
| French | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| le four | oven | The box under la cuisinière, or built into a column on its own |
| les plaques (f.) | hob, cooktop | Les plaques de cuisson in full: induction, gaz or vitrocéramique |
| la hotte | extractor hood | The thing above les plaques that you forget to switch off |
| le congélateur | freezer | Le congél in speech, and au congélateur for where something is |
| le lave-vaisselle | dishwasher | Invariable in the plural: des lave-vaisselle, no s |
| la bouilloire | kettle | Far less common in France than in Britain |
| le grille-pain | toaster | Also invariable: des grille-pain |
| la cafetière | coffee maker, coffee pot | Both the machine and the pot it fills |
| le mixeur | blender | Le robot is the food processor, a different machine |
| le robinet | tap, faucet | Ouvrir le robinet, fermer le robinet |
| le tiroir | drawer | Le tiroir à couverts is where the cutlery lives |
| l’étagère (f.) | shelf | Une étagère is open; un placard has doors |
| la poubelle | bin, trash can | Sortir la poubelle is to take the bin out |
| l’éponge (f.) | sponge | With le liquide vaisselle, the washing-up liquid |
| l’essuie-tout (m.) | kitchen roll, paper towel | Invariable, and never un torchon |
| le bol | bowl | Un bol for breakfast; une assiette creuse for soup |
| le saladier | mixing bowl, salad bowl | The big one you mix in, not the one you eat from |
| la nappe | tablecloth | Mettre la nappe comes before mettre la table |
| la serviette | napkin | Une serviette de table, to separate it from a towel |
| le tabouret | stool | What you sit on at an îlot, the kitchen island |
Where things live
Naming the object is half the job. The other half is the preposition that goes with it, and French fixes those by habit rather than by logic. These ten are worth learning as whole phrases.
| French | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| dans le réfrigérateur, au frigo | in the fridge | Au frigo is what you will hear nine times out of ten |
| au congélateur | in the freezer | Au, not dans, once it is the usual storage place |
| dans le placard | in the cupboard | Sur l’étagère if the shelf is open |
| sur le plan de travail | on the worktop | Sur, because it is a surface |
| dans l’évier | in the sink | Dans l’évier for the dirty plates, à l’évier for standing at it |
| sous l’évier | under the sink | Where le liquide vaisselle and la poubelle usually are |
| au four | in the oven | Un gratin au four, mettre le plat au four |
| sur le feu | on the heat | La casserole est sur le feu, even on an electric hob |
| à table | at the table, to the table | À table ! is how a French family is called to eat |
| dans le lave-vaisselle | in the dishwasher | Mettre au lave-vaisselle also works, as a destination |
Four traps worth reading twice
La cuisine is both the room and the cooking. Ma cuisine est petite is my kitchen is small; j’aime la cuisine italienne is I like Italian food; and faire la cuisine is to cook. The same doubling hits la cuisinière, which is the cooker in the corner and also a woman who cooks: elle est cuisinière means she is a chef. Context sorts it out every time, but the first time you read une bonne cuisinière it is worth knowing both readings exist.
L’évier is the kitchen sink and le lavabo is the bathroom basin, and French never swaps them. A third word, la vasque, is the bowl-shaped basin that sits on top of a bathroom unit. If you ask where le lavabo is in a restaurant you will be pointed to the toilets, which is usually what you wanted anyway, but in a kitchen it is l’évier, always.
Nobody says le réfrigérateur out loud. Le frigo is the everyday word, in every household and every recipe: mets ça au frigo. Le réfrigérateur belongs to shop labels and instruction manuals, and le congélateur is the freezer, shortened to le congél in speech. Un frigo américain is the big two-door one with the ice dispenser, so called because it is not what a French kitchen normally has.
Le torchon, la serviette and l’essuie-tout are three different cloths. Un torchon is the tea towel you dry the dishes with, and calling a meal or a piece of writing un torchon is an insult. Une serviette is the napkin at the table, or a towel in the bathroom: une serviette de table against une serviette de bain. L’essuie-tout is the paper roll, invariable, and never un torchon en papier.