French Vocabulary of Drinks

The French are known to like to have a drink together. In fact, even within the company, everyone knows that discussions at the coffee machine are sometimes more important than those during meetings.

Any occasion is good to have an aperitif, a glass of wine and to remake the world.

But not only the aperitif, if you have ever been to France, you have certainly noticed that all the cities in France have many cafés, where you can see French people drinking a hot drink on the terrace. And that, every day of the week and at any time of the day, a true French love of coffee.

We can ask ourselves when the French work?? 😆

You certainly know that this is un verre (a glass):

And of course you know the verb boire (to drink).

But do you know all the vocabulary words and verbs related to drinking? I am not talking here about the specialized vocabulary around wine. The French are very good at giving nice words to this beverage.

That’s what we’re going to see together right now 😀

I’m going to show you :

  • the 24 most common objects that we use to drink
  • and a list of 20 verbs or expressions that the French use to talk about “drinking

👉 with the French phonetics of the word. 

PDF Bonus

We have prepared a free PDF to help you with the French vocabulary of drinks. 👉 Download it for free

You will find a summary of the lesson, exercises to practice and the correction.

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French vocabulary of drinking objects

un verre

a glass

un verre ballon

a balloon glass

un verre à vin

a wine glass

un verre à eau

a water glass

un verre à Cognac

a Cognac glass

✔️ Ecoute & lis…

L’art de boire

Quel que soit le breuvage, rien n’interdit de le déguster dans un contenant qui le magnifie

Aucun spécialiste ni amateur éclairé de vin ne peut souscrire au proverbe populaire voulant que le flacon importe peu tant qu’on a l’ivresse. Preuve en est que les oenologues, sommeliers et autres journalistes spécialisés sont de plus en plus nombreux à livrer leurs conseils avisés aux grandes cristalleries. Avec une ambition avouée : que leurs verres de dégustation ne soient pas seulement sublimes, mais qu’ils subliment aussi bouquets et cépages.

C’est le cas de Baccarat, qui peaufine, depuis 1995, ses services à dégustation sous le regard exigeant de Bruno Quenioux, fils de vignerons, passionné par le monde viticole, grand spécialiste des vins bio.

Source : Le Figaro

un verre à whisky

a whisky glass

un verre à cocktail

a cocktail glass

une flûte

a Champagne flute

une coupe

a Champagne cup

une chope

a beer mug

une carafe

a carafe

une carafe à décanter

a decanting carafe

un carafon

a decanter

un pichet

a pitcher

une gourde

a gourd

une bouteille

a bottle

une bouteille isotherme

an isothermal bottle

une théière

a teapot

un biberon

a baby bottle

un gobelet

a tumbler

une tasse

a cup

l’anse de la tasse

the handle of the cup

un bol

a bowl

un mug

a mug

📌 How do you order drinks in French?

In France, they don’t just drink wine with their meals- they also enjoy aperitifs before dinner and digestifs after. If you want to blend in like a seasoned French foodie, it’s important to know how to order your drinks correctly:

  • When ordering an aperitif, simply ask for un apéritif, s’il vous plaît. 
  • To order a glass of wine with dinner, you can say une bouteille de vin rouge, s’il vous plaît or une bouteille de vin blanc, s’il vous plaît.
  • And when you’re ready for a digestif, you can say un digestif, s’il vous plaît. 

So there you have it- with these few simple phrases, you’ll be ordering drinks like a native Frenchman in no time and you will then be ready to go and enjoy some good drinks on the French Riviera.

French verbs or expressions for drinking

boire

to drink

Drink in large quantities.

Generally used for animals.

s’abreuver

to drink a lot

Pass the liquid (water, wine, etc.)
from his mouth to his stomach.

avaler

to swallow

To swallow, we activate the déglutir function.

déglutir

to deglutir

laper

to lap

Expression to say that we will stop our thirst,
by drinking a lot.

étancher sa soif

to quench your thirst

Verb synonymous with the expression
étancher sa soif.

se désaltérer

to quench oneself

se rafraîchir

to cool off

trinquer

to toast

Expressions used when toasting.

Tchin tchin ! – Santé !

Cheers!

Expression to designate the fact of drinking alcohol.

lever le coude

to drink alcohol

Drinking alcohol on a regular basis.

⚠️ colloquial language

picoler

to drink up

Drinking too much alcohol.

s’enivrer

to get drunk

Drinking too much alcohol.

s’imbiber

soak up

Drinking too much alcohol.

💡 You can also use another spelling to write the verb : saouler

se soûler

to get drunk

To drink.

⚠️ colloquial language

se taper un verre

to have a drink

Drink slowly, while enjoying yourself.

siroter

to sip

Drink very quickly.

This is the opposite of siroter.

se siffler

to whistle

sentir

to smell

Synonymous with sentir,
but in a more delicate way.

humer

to smell (more delicate)

French Bonus PDF

If you want, you can download the free Bonus PDF on French vocabulary. You will find all the vocabulary we have just seen and an exercise with the correction to practice.

Enjoy! 😃

Conclusion

Do you know that none of the verbs we have just seen is part of the 50 most used verbs by the French?

Do you find French conjugation difficult?  🙈

To help you memorize the conjugation of the 50 verbs most used by the French, we have prepared a course that you can do alone and in which you will find :

  • The complete conjugation,
  • the phonetics of the conjugation,
  • examples of typical sentences used by the French (1,000 sentences in total)
  • and 1,000 sentences of exercises to train yourself, with the correction and a complementary explanation.

In addition, we propose a very effective method to memorize the conjugations and not to be blocked when you want to participate in a discussion with French native speakers.

When you finish the course, you will be able to participate in all discussions with French people 👍 
👉 Training on the 50 most used verbs by the French


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