Library in French: don’t walk into a bookshop

Library in French is la bibliothèque [1]. This page covers the library in the French language, then the other places you look for in a town: shops, services, and the town hall. It shows which small words go with them and lets you hear the main ones. If you need full directions, see French for travel. For the little words in between, see French prepositions.

What is library in French?

The French word for library is la bibliothèque, a feminine noun [1]. Larousse gives “library” for the place and “book-case” for the piece of furniture [1]. It also lists bibliothèque municipale as a public library and bibliothèque universitaire as a university library [1]. Hear la bibliothèque.

Do not say la librairie for a library. Larousse translates librairie as bookshop in British English and bookstore in American English [2]. You buy books there; you borrow them at la bibliothèque. English “library” looks like librairie.

What do you call the shops and services in town?

Here are the places you will look for most. The article shows the gender, and there is a recording where we have one.

Larousse also lists épicerie fine as a delicatessen [5]. And boulangerie pâtisserie is a baker’s and confectioner’s, a bread and cake shop [3]. Say la pharmacie and la mairie aloud. The mairie is where people ask about taxes or get married, according to Larousse [6].

How do you say where is in French?

Where is in French is où est. For a place, French also uses où se trouve. Larousse’s example is “où se trouve la gare ?”, translated as “where’s the station?” [9]. The same entry gives se trouver the meaning “to be (situated) or located” for a building or town [9].

For other question words, see French question words.

How do you say “to the” with places: à, au and chez?

Use à to say you are going to or at a place. Larousse lists au and aux as contractions of à le and à les [8]. So à + le becomes au, à + les becomes aux, and you never say à le. With la or l’ nothing changes.

For a person, use chez. Larousse defines it as “dans la demeure ou le local professionnel de quelqu’un” and gives Aller chez le médecin as an example [7]. So the doctor is chez le médecin, never au médecin.

What do you say in a restaurant in French? Larousse defines l’addition as the note giving the detail and total of what a customer spent at a restaurant or café, with Demander l’addition as its example [10]. For the food itself, see Food in French.

Common mistakes

• Using librairie for a library. Larousse gives bookshop for librairie and library for bibliothèque [1][2].
• Saying à le. The contraction is au, and à + les is aux [8].
• Using au or à for a person. Say chez le médecin, not au médecin [7].
• Dropping the article. Learn la pharmacie and la mairie together, so the right contraction follows. That is a general observation.
• Relying on a vocabulary page from a blog, including this one. Dictionary entries change. Compare each entry’s date with the date at the top of this page.

See also: school in French.

Sources