Talking about food in French

Giving your opinions of food and drink

To ask someone what they like or don’t like eating and drinking, you can use the ‎following questions:‎

• Qu'est-ce que tu aimes manger/boire? - What do you like to eat/drink?‎
• Qu'est-ce que tu n'aimes pas manger/boire? - What don’t you like to eat/drink?‎

For many food items, you need to use a plural when you are giving your opinion of them, ‎as you would in English. For example, you would say ‘I like carrots’ or ‘I don’t like ‎hamburgers’.‎

To form a plural in French, you usually (but not always) add an ‘s’, like you would do in ‎English. For example, carrot is carotte and carrots is carottes in French.‎

• J’aime les carottes - I like carrots.‎
• Je n’aime pas les hamburgers - I don’t like hamburgers.‎

To reply, you can use j’aime (I like) or je n’aime pas (I don’t like), followed by the food ‎item.

After j’aime or je n’aime pas, you need to have a definite article (le, la or les).‎

• J’aime le poulet - I like chicken.‎
• Je n’aime pas la limonade - I don’t like lemonade.‎

Extending your opinions with reasons

You can add more information about why you like or dislike different food and drink ‎items by using parce que (because).‎

To give a reason why you like or dislike a food or drink item, such as chocolate or orange ‎juice, say parce que c’est (because it is) followed by the masculine form of the adjective.‎

Drinks and meat tend to be singular.‎

• J’aime le poulet parce que c’est délicieux - I like chicken because it’s delicious.‎
• Je n’aime pas la limonade parce que c’est trop sucré - I don’t like lemonade ‎because it is too sweet.‎
• J’aime les légumes parce que c’est bon pour la santé - I like vegetables because ‎they’re healthy.‎

For more opinion phrases, food and drink items and reasons why you might ‎like or dislike them, click on the downloadable phrase builder below:

Explaining dietary requirements

Sometimes, it is important to explain that you can’t eat certain foods.
Here are some useful phrases to help you talk about allergies and dietary requirements:‎

Saying what you eat for different meals

To talk about what you eat for different meals, you can use the following expressions:‎

• Au petit déjeuner, je mange des céréales et je bois du thé - For breakfast, I eat ‎cereal and I drink tea.‎
• À midi, j’aime manger des sandwichs - For lunch, I like eating sandwiches.‎
• Le soir, je préfère manger une salade - For dinner, I prefer eating a salad.‎

Talking about meals in different tenses

Present tense

To say what you usually eat and drink, or what you are eating and drinking right now, use ‎the present tense of the verbs manger (to eat) and boire (to drink):‎

• Normalement, à midi, je mange un hamburger et je bois de l’eau - Normally, for ‎lunch, I eat a hamburger and I drink some water.‎
• Aujourd’hui, ma mère mange des céréales au petit déjeuner - My mum is eating ‎cereal for breakfast.‎

Past tense

To talk about what you ate in the past, you need to use the passé composé (perfect ‎tense) of the verbs manger (to eat) and boire (to drink):‎

• Hier, j'ai mangé du poisson et j'ai bu de l'eau - Yesterday, I ate fish and I drank ‎water. ‎
• Samedi dernier, mon copain a mangé du gâteau et il a bu du coca parce que ‎c'était son anniversaire - Last Saturday, my friend ate cake and drank cola ‎because it was his birthday.‎

Future tense

If you want to say what you are going to eat in the future, you use the correct form of ‎aller (to go) and the infinitives manger (to eat) and boire (to drink):‎

• Ce soir, je vais manger une pomme et je vais boire du jus d'orange parce que c'est ‎bon pour la santé - This evening, I'm going to eat an apple and I'm going to drink ‎some orange juice because it is healthy.‎
• Demain, mon père va boire du café au petit déjeuner - Tomorrow, my dad is going ‎to drink some coffee at breakfast.‎

Quiz

Watch the video and find out how much you know about food in French with this short quiz.