Kitchen Vocabulary in French: La Cuisine
The kitchen is the best room to learn vocabulary in, because you stand in it every day. Name five things while the kettle boils and you have had a lesson. This list covers the room, the equipment and the verbs — enough to follow a French recipe without a translator.
The room and the big appliances
- la cuisine — the kitchen (kwee-zeen)
- le four — the oven (foor)
- la cuisinière — the cooker / stove
- les plaques (f) — the hob
- le frigo — the fridge. Full form: le réfrigérateur
- le congélateur — the freezer
- le lave-vaisselle — the dishwasher (literally "wash-crockery")
- le micro-ondes — the microwave
- l'évier (m) — the kitchen sink
- le robinet — the tap
- le placard — the cupboard
Le frigo is the word everyone actually uses — réfrigérateur is what appears on the box it came in. That is a small lesson in register.
Cookware
- la casserole — the saucepan. Not a casserole dish — false friend.
- la poêle — the frying pan (pwal)
- le couvercle — the lid
- le plat — the dish (both the object and the course)
- le saladier — the mixing bowl
- la planche à découper — the chopping board
- la passoire — the colander
At the table
- une assiette — a plate
- un bol — a bowl
- un verre — a glass
- une tasse — a cup
- une fourchette — a fork
- un couteau — a knife (plural: des couteaux)
- une cuillère — a spoon
- une serviette — a napkin
Useful set phrase: mettre la table — to lay the table. Tu peux mettre la table, s'il te plaît ?
The verbs that unlock recipes
- faire la cuisine — to cook (the activity)
- cuire — to cook (the food). Faire cuire au four — to bake.
- couper — to cut · éplucher — to peel
- mélanger — to mix · remuer — to stir
- verser — to pour · ajouter — to add
- faire bouillir — to boil · faire revenir — to fry lightly
- goûter — to taste · assaisonner — to season
Why recipes look strange
Open a French recipe and the instructions are usually infinitives, not commands: Mélanger les œufs et le sucre. Ajouter la farine. Verser dans un moule. It is an impersonal style that sidesteps choosing between tu and vous. Other recipes use the imperative — mélangez, ajoutez, versez — which sounds a little warmer. Both are normal; recognise them and neither will slow you down.
Two traps
- une casserole is a saucepan, not a casserole. The oven dish is une cocotte or un plat allant au four.
- une cuisinière is both the cooker and a female cook. Ma mère est une excellente cuisinière is a compliment, not an appliance.
Learn it where you stand
Say the name of every object you touch tomorrow morning while making coffee — la tasse, la cuillère, le frigo. Physical context is the cheapest memory aid there is, and it costs no extra time.
Practise this on your own
Reading about kitchen vocabulary is the easy half — you only own it once you've produced it yourself. On parisly.app you can work through this material at your own pace — reading, listening, writing and speaking practice with feedback, so the vocabulary in this lesson turns into French you can actually use.
Next stop is the shop: supermarket vocabulary in French picks up where this leaves off, and morning routine verbs put these objects into sentences. To practise ordering and cooking talk out loud, book a lesson.