House in French: from la maison to chez moi

House in French is la maison, a feminine noun [1]. This page goes room by room: the words for house and home, the rooms, the furniture with its gender, and the small words that say where things are. You can hear most of them, then play a short quiz. For more starter words, see basic French words. For why every noun has a le or a la, see French articles and noun gender.

How do you say house in French?

Say la maison. Larousse defines maison as a building made to be lived in, and as a single-family construction [1]. It is a feminine noun, so it takes la and une [1].

The same word does more work than “house”. Larousse’s third sense is the place where you live, with the example “Venez dîner à la maison”, and it lists chez-soi, foyer and toit as synonyms [1]. It is also a word for the people who live together, and for a business, as in la maison mère [1].

As an adjective, maison means made at home. Larousse’s example is “Des tartes maison”, and the adjective does not change in the plural [1].

How do you say home in French?

Home in French is usually chez soi, or à la maison. Larousse’s English-French entry for “home” gives maison for one’s house and chez-soi for the more personal sense, a masculine noun that never changes form [2]. It translates “at home” as chez soi, à la maison, and “make yourself at home” as faites comme chez vous [2].

French for at home depends on who is at home. Chez is followed by a person, and the person changes the ending: chez moi, chez toi, chez nous, chez eux. For a general “one”, use chez soi. Larousse’s entry for chez gives rester chez soi, to stay at home, and rentrer chez soi, to go home [3].

What is the difference between maison, domicile and logement?

Maison is the building or the home. Domicile is where someone lives permanently or habitually, a masculine noun: Larousse’s example is changer de domicile [4]. Logement is the part of a building or house where you live, as in “un logement de deux pièces”, and Larousse lists appartement as a synonym [5].

Larousse’s “home” entry shows the working difference. “I work at home” is je travaille à domicile or chez moi [2].

How do you say room in French?

Room in French depends on the kind of room. Larousse’s English-French entry for “room” gives pièce for a room in a house, salle for a room in a building or public place, and chambre for a room in a hotel [6]. The same entry uses place when “room” means space, as in “is there enough room?” [6]. In the other direction, Larousse translates pièce as room, and a deux-pièces as a one-bedroom apartment in US English [7].

Hear la pièce. Chambre is the one that surprises English speakers. Larousse’s first sense is a room of a dwelling where one sleeps, with “chambre d’enfants” as the example [8].

What are kitchen, bedroom and the other rooms in French?

Kitchen in French is la cuisine, and bedroom in French is la chambre. Learn each noun with its article, so you keep the gender. The gender of these is general vocabulary; only the entries with a number come from a source we opened.

Hear la douche (shower) and la baignoire (bathtub). The parts of a house are la porte, la fenêtre, le mur, le plafond and le toit. There is no recording yet for la salle de bains.

How do you say chair in French, and the rest of the furniture?

Chair in French is la chaise. Furniture in general is les meubles, a plural noun. The armchair is le fauteuil and the sofa is le canapé. Say la chaise and le fauteuil aloud, then use the table.

Le lit and l’étagère have no recording yet. Gender is not always guessable from the English word, so learn le or la with each noun. That is a general observation, not a dictionary finding.

How do you say where things are in a room?

Three small words cover most of a room, and the Académie française defines each. Dans means inside: it gives “Entrer dans la maison” and “Ranger du linge dans une armoire” [9]. Sur marks something placed higher than another, with “Un homme assis sur une chaise, allongé sur son lit” and “Mettre une nappe sur la table” [10]. Sous marks something placed lower, as in “Mettre une cale sous un meuble” [11].

Hear sur, devant and derrière. The full set of place words, with à côté de and entre, is in French prepositions.

The Académie also uses sur for a room that opens onto something: “Le salon s’ouvre sur la terrasse” [10]. And it gives “Un appartement qui donne sur la cour” for a flat that looks onto a courtyard [10].

What can you say about your house in French?

Start with these. The sentences are our own, built from the words above.

• J’habite dans une petite maison. (I live in a small house.)
• Le salon est à côté de la cuisine. (The living room is next to the kitchen.)
• La clé est sur la table. (The key is on the table.)
• Le tapis est sous la chaise. (The rug is under the chair.)
• Mon bureau est dans la chambre. (My desk is in the bedroom.)
• Venez chez moi ! (Come to my place!)

For the people who live there, see family in French, and for the meals eaten there, food in French.

Common mistakes

• Translating “room” with one word. The Larousse entry splits it into pièce, salle and chambre [6]. Use pièce for a room of a house and chambre for the bedroom.
• Saying chez with a thing. Chez takes a person, as in chez moi, chez le médecin [3]. For a place, use à or dans.
• Dropping the article. Learn la chaise, not chaise alone, so you keep the gender. That is a general observation.
• Adding an s to maison used as an adjective. Larousse lists it as invariable: des tartes maison [1].
• Relying on a vocabulary page from a blog, including this one. Dictionary entries change between editions. Compare each entry’s date with the date at the top of this page.

See also: school in French.

Sources