List of 50+ Insects in French
Insects are everywhere, be it within your house, the air, the ground, under the soil, the sea, over the water and even in one’s skin!!!! Yeah you heard me right. The estimated number of insect species in the world is about 5.5 million and even in that only 1 million insect species are named. This means that roughly 80% of insects have yet to be discovered. How can you go a single day without hearing the buzz of a bee or a fly or without seeing a fruit fly or a worm? Seeing as that they are everywhere, it becomes of great importance that you learn the vocabulary list of insects in French.
In order to improve your French vocabulary, you must learn the list of insects in French. An interesting question is you should be learning how to talk about insects in French but also how to incorporate these words into coherent sentences. Thus you need to know the vocabulary of insects in French along with descriptive example sentences so that you are able to learn and immerse properly. And this is exactly what we are going to do here!!!
Topics
- How to say insects in French
- Butterfly in French
- Common insects in French
- All kinds of Bugs
- Stinging insects
- Pet insects in French
- Verbs related to insects
- French Common phrases
- Parts of an insect in French
FRENCH VOCABULARY MASTER WORD LIST: How do you say insects in French?
- WORD: The French translation for “The insect” is “L’insecte”
- EXAMPLE SENTENCE: “Cockroaches are insects.” à Les cafards sont des insectes.
- WORD: The French translation for “The worm” is “Le ver”
- EXAMPLE SENTENCE: “How many worms do you want?” à Combien de vers voulez-vous ?
L:earn about the butterfly in French
When you think of a beautiful insect, what do you see? Of course you think of the beautiful butterfly! The butterfly is very colourful, pretty and is a sight to behold. When we see something magical in movies, there are always butterflies flying about with colours galore. Would it not be perfectly fitting if we learnt about the butterfly in French before we step into other insects (pun intended of course!!!)? Let us learn about the butterfly in French with example sentences.
- ENGLISH: What is the translation for “butterfly life cycle” in French?
- FRENCH: French translation for “Life cycle of a butterfly” is “cycle de vie des papillons”
- ENGLISH: What is the translation for “Monarch butterfly” in French?
- FRENCH: French translation for “Monarch Butterfly” is “Papillon monarque”
| Butterfly in English | Translation | Example sentence | Sentences for French butterfly |
| The Butterfly | Le papillon | There are many butterflies in the garden. | Il y a beaucoup de papillons dans le jardin. |
| The Caterpillar | la chenille | The Caterpillar ate three leaves. | La chenille a mangé trois feuilles. |
| The egg | L’œuf | There are millions of butterfly eggs in the forest. | Il y a des millions d’œufs de papillons dans la forêt. |
| Chrysalis | Chrysalide | We learnt about chrysalis of a butterfly today. | Nous avons entendu parler de la chrysalide d’un papillon aujourd’hui. |
| Metamorphosis | Métamorphose | In the life cycle of a butterfly, metamorphosis is a very important stage. | Dans le cycle de vie d’un papillon, la métamorphose est une étape très importante. |
| The Cocoon | Le Cocon | The gardener took care of the silk cocoons. | Le jardinier s’est occupé des cocons de soie. |
Common insects in French
While there are billions of insects in the world, when you say the word insect in French or English, you only think of a select few which we see every day. Some insects are more common and commonly used in conversations than other insects. So it is necessary that you learn the vocabulary list of these common insects in French. This will help you hold a conversation easily. Let us learn about the different common insects in French with example sentences.
| English | Translation | Example sentence in English | Sentences for French Common Insects |
| The Cockroach | Le cafard | The cockroach is ten days old. | Le cafard a dix jours. |
| The mosquito | Le moustique | There are so many mosquitoes in India. | Il y a tellement de moustiques en Inde. |
| The Moth | le papillon de nuit (or) le papillon | Moths have a bad smell. | Le papillon était très grand. |
| The Dragonfly | La libellule | I like dragonflies | j’aime les libellules |
| The Firefly | La luciole | The firefly is pretty. | La luciole est jolie. |
| The mayfly | L’éphémère | The mayfly lives for only twenty four hours. | L’éphémère ne vit que vingt-quatre heures. |
| The Fruit fly | La mouche des fruits | Fruit flies love mangoes. | Les mouches des fruits aiment les mangues. |
| The Gnat | Le moucheron | The gnat was very arrogant. | Le moucheron était très arrogant. |
| The Spider | L’araignée | Spiders have eight legs. | Les araignées ont huit pattes. |
| The worm | Le ver | The worm lives in the garden | Le ver vit dans le jardin |
Most common bugs in French
Ok I’m going to be upfront with you. If there is one thing I hate in this beautiful world, its bugs and creepy crawlies!!! When you say the word bugs in French or in English, you can see me cringe!! But that gives me more the reason to memorize the wordlist so that I can explain to people that I hate them and I like to avoid them. As with insects, a few bugs are far more common across the world. So it is necessary that you learn the vocabulary list of these common bugs in French. Along with the list of insects in French, Let us learn the different bugs in French with example sentences.
| Common Bugs in English | Translation: Common Bugs in French | Example sentence for Common Bugs in English | Sentences for French Common Bugs |
| The bug | L’insecte | The scientist caught two bugs. | Le scientifique a attrapé deux insectes. |
| The ladybug | La coccinelle | Ladybugs are very pretty. | Les coccinelles sont très jolies. |
| The bedbug | La punaise de lit | I caught the bedbug. | J’ai attrapé la punaise de lit. |
| The lice | Les poux | This medicine kills lice. | Ce médicament tue les poux. |
| The beetle | Le scarabée | I can eat the beetle. | Je peux manger le scarabée. |
| The dung beetle | Le bousier | The dung beetle is very strong. | Le bousier est très fort. |
| The flea | La puce | Fleas can jump. | Les puces peuvent sauter. |
| The tick | La tique | Stay away from ticks and fleas. | Éloignez-vous des tiques et des puces. |
Stinging insects in French
You put your hand on a flower and all of a sudden there is a super sharp pain in your finger!!!! You scream and throw down the flower. What on earth was that? IT’S A BEE!!!! DAMN YOU GIT STUNG BY A BEE!!! You have to say this to your doctor in French. How do you do that without knowing the list of insects in French which sting? Let us learn the different stinging insects in French with example sentences.
| English | Translation | Example sentence | Sentences for French |
| The bee | L’abeille | The bee sat on the flower. | L’abeille s’est assise sur la fleur. |
| The wasp | La guêpe | The wasp flew away. | La guêpe s’est envolée. |
| The Hornet | Le frelon | Hornets and wasps are enemies. | Les frelons et les guêpes sont des ennemis. |
| The Honeybee | le bourdon | The beekeeper loves his bumblebees | L’apiculteur aime ses bourdons |
| The ant | La fourm | There are two anthills and a billion ants in my garden. | Il y a deux fourmilières et un milliard de fourmis dans mon jardin. |
Pet insects in French
Do you know that it is very common across the world for people to have insects as pets? Children love having insects as pets as they are hardy and easy to maintain. They do not require constant care and can take care of themselves. Let us learn the different insects which can be kept as pets in French with example sentences.
| English | Translation | Example sentence in English | Sentences for French |
| The praying mantis | La mante religieuse | The young girl has a pet praying mantis. | La jeune fille a une mante religieuse pour animaux de compagnie. |
| The stick insect | Le phasme | Stick insects are very weird | Les phasmes sont très bizarres |
| The leaf insect | L’insecte feuille | Leaf insects are very cute. | Les insectes feuilles sont très mignons. |
| The scorpion | Le scorpion | This scorpion is poisonous. | Ce scorpion est venimeux. |
| The Tarantula | La Tarentule | I am scared of tarantulas and scorpions. | J’ai peur des tarentules et des scorpions. |
Hopping insects in French?
Have you ever looked at a grasshopper? It looks like a small machine. It can jump up an incredible height, can fly and looks freaky as hell!!! I HATE THEM but my brother loves them!!!! Let us learn the different hopping insects in French with example sentences.
| Hopping Insects in English | Translation: Hopping Insects in French |
| The grasshopper | La sauterelle |
| The locust | Le locuste |
| The mantis | La mante |
| The cricket | Le croquet |
| The cicada | La cigale |
Insect related Verbs in French
Now that we have learnt about so many insects in French, let us now focus on some common French Verbs which will help us form sentences using these insects. For example, you need to say that the caterpillar crawls but the butterfly flies. You need to say that the bee lives in a hive while an ant lives in an anthill. You need to say that a cockroach has antennae while a wasp has wings. So basically you need to know a few verbs and nouns related to acts which the insects perform in French. In this section let us learn about a few verbs related to insects in French
| Insect words in English | Translation: Common Insect words in French | Example sentence for Common Insects words in English | Sentences for Common French words related to Insects |
| To sting | Piquer | The bee stings the boy. | L’abeille pique le garçon. |
| To bite | Mordre | The Ant bites me and it is painful. | La fourmi me mord et c’est douloureux. |
| To fly | Voler | The butterfly flew away. | Le papillon s’est envolé. |
| To crawl | Ramper | The soldier is crawling. | Le soldat rampe. |
| To walk | Marcher | The girl walks fast. | La fille marche vite. |
| To run | Courir | The athlete runs from Germany to Austria. | L’athlète court de l’Allemagne à l’Autriche. |
| To jump | Sauter | A grasshopper can jump very high. | Une sauterelle peut sauter très haut. |
| To pollinate | Polliniser | The bee pollinates the flowers. | L’abeille pollinise les fleurs. |
Parts of an insect in French
With the French insect related verbs done, let us proceed with the parts of an insect in French and other nouns related to insects in French
| Insect words in English | Translation: Common Insect words in French | Example sentence for Common Insects words in English | Sentences for Common French words related to Insects |
| The stinger | Le dard | The bee has a powerful stinger. | L’abeille a un dard puissant. |
| The antennae | Les antennes | Cockroaches have long antennae. | Les cafards ont de longues antennes. |
| The wings | Les ailes | I hate insects which have wings. | Je déteste les insectes qui ont des ailes. |
| The mandible | La mandibule | The insect’s mandible is quite weak. | La mandibule de l’insecte est assez faible. |
| The thorax | Le thorax | Every insect has a thorax. | Chaque insecte a un thorax. |
| The abdomen | L’abdomen | A worm does not have an abdomen. | Un ver n’a pas d’abdomen. |
| The leg | patte | A centipede has a hundred legs. | Un mille-pattes a cent pattes. |
| The anthill | La fourmilière | There is an anthill near our house. | Il y a une fourmilière près de chez nous. |
| The nest | Le nid | The wasp built a nest. | La guêpe a construit un nid. |
| The hive | La ruche | The beekeeper has many beehives. | L’apiculteur possède de nombreuses ruches. |
| The nectar | Le nectar | Flowers produce nectar. | Les fleurs produisent du nectar. |
Common insect related phrases in French
I have explained all over this post about how I hate insects and how much I am terrified of them. So what do I say in French when I see one? Let us learn the different common insect related phrases in French with example sentences.
| Hopping Insects in English | Translation: Hopping Insects in French |
| I am afraid of insects. | J’ai peur des insectes. |
| Does it sting? | Est-ce que ça pique? |
| Insects are creepy. | Les insectes sont effrayants. |
| It has many feet. | Il a de nombreux pieds. |
| What type of insect is that? | De quel type d’insecte s’agit-il? |
| The mosquito bit me. | Le moustique m’a piqué. |
| I am allergic to bee stings. | Je suis allergique aux piqûres d’abeilles. |
| I am terrified of insects. | J’ai peur des insectes. |
| Can it jump? | Peut-il sauter? |
| Can it fly? | Peut-il voler? |
| It looks so disgusting. | Ça a l’air tellement dégoûtant. |
| What does it eat? | Qu’est-ce que ça mange? |
| Is it poisonous? | Est-ce toxique? |
Conclusion
We have learnt a lot about the most common insects in French and also about what they do, where they live, the butterfly life cycle in French and also many more phrases. Hope you had fun learning.
