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French Places Vocabulary — Around Town and Travel

Knowing the names of places turns a French city from a maze into a map — the station, the market, the hotel you're trying to find. This page gathers essential French vocabulary for places around town, from l'hôpital (hospital) and l'hôtel (hotel) to le marché (market) and la gare (station), each with its English meaning, its pronunciation and a button to hear it spoken in a native voice. A note for English speakers: that little circumflex accent (the ^ in hôpital) often marks where French long ago dropped an "s" — which is why hôpital and "hospital" are cousins, a handy memory hook. Gender still rides along (le musée, la banque), and the "h" at the start of hôtel is silent, so it links with the article. Many place names are near-cognates, so let your ears separate the French sound from the English. Tap any 🔊 to listen, skim the table, then take these into Linguver, where the English word falls and you shoot its French translation from the drum.

Key words explained

• hospital hôpital🔊 She works as a nurse at the local hospital.
• hotel hôtel🔊 Our hotel was right by the beach.
• market marché🔊 We bought fresh fruit at the market.
• station gare🔊 I will meet you outside the station at noon.
• restaurant restaurant🔊 They opened a small restaurant downtown.
• airport aéroport🔊 We reached the airport two hours early.
• bank banque🔊 The bank closes at five today.
• library bibliothèque🔊 He spent the afternoon reading in the library.

All 120 French places words

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