Once upon a time you could find many little family farms in towns and villages across many parts of le province. Many of these owned by families who, while not farmers, kept animals.

The  animals, popularly known as les animaux de la basse-cour (the animals of the lower court), provided des œufs, du lait, et même de la viande (eggs, milk, and even meat). And while this type of home farm is far less common today, lessons on les animaux de la basse-cour (and related farming terms) still make up part of the curriculum dans les écoles maternelles across France.

Here’s a little story about a farm I know … use the vocabulary below to see how much you can understand.

Vocabulaire de la ferme / Farm vocabulary

Une ferme est, en général, tenue par un fermier ou une fermière (A farm is, generally, run by a farmer (m.) or farmer (f).)

Voici quelques bâtiments de la ferme (here are some of the buildings on the farm):

La grange / the barn

L’écurie¹Especially a horse stable., l’étable / the stable

Le poulailler / the chicken coop

Dans la basse-cour on trouve (In the lower yard one finds):

Les poules / chickens

Le coq / the rooster

Des poussins / chicks

L’oie²It was only recently that I learned that the French term for the color yellow-green … which I’d heard but never really thought about … is literally caca d’oie (goose poo)!³Which is nothing when you also learn that there is a caca dauphin (dauphin poo) named for what Marie Antoinette found in her son’s royal couches (diapers) and made all the rage à la cour de Louis XVI! / goose

Le canard⁴Connaissez-vous la danse des canards?/ duck

Le lapin / rabbit

And while you wouldn’t find many in France, on an American farm you might also find des dindes (turkeys)

D’autres animaux de la ferme sont / Other farm animals include:

Le cheval, la jument / the horse, the filly

La vache, le bœuf / the cow, the bull

Le cochon, la truie / the pig, the sow

La chevre, le bouc / the goat (f.), the goat (m.)

Le mouton, la brebis / the sheep, the ewe

L’âne, l’ânness / the donkey (m.), the donkey (f.)

Want to learn more? You can read about other animals names here and about the names for young animals here.  And check out this post to learn about les bruits des animaux en français.

Photo by Brett Jordan from Pexels

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  Especially a horse stable.
• 2
  It was only recently that I learned that the French term for the color yellow-green … which I’d heard but never really thought about … is literally caca d’oie (goose poo)!
• 3
  Which is nothing when you also learn that there is a caca dauphin (dauphin poo) named for what Marie Antoinette found in her son’s royal couches (diapers) and made all the rage à la cour de Louis XVI!
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  Connaissez-vous la danse des canards?