French Words for My Love | 45+ French Terms of Endearment

Growing up in France I was called all sorts of things by my parents, my cousins, and complete strangers in shops. It was only when I started learning other languages that I realised how particular those French words for my love actually are, and how much they meant to me.

I tried translating a few for my husband, and they just fell flat. “My little cabbage” is not a thing you can say to an Englishman. And it goes the other way too: I cannot bring myself to call him miel, even though “honey” works perfectly well in English.

What I can do, though, is share some of these French terms of endearment with you. What they mean, who they’re for, how to actually say them, and which ones you should absolutely not try on a colleague.

How the French do it

The French have what feels like an entire farmyard, greengrocer, and pastry shop’s worth of affectionate nicknames, and they use them freely. Partners, kids, close friends, and sometimes even colleagues get swept up in this vocabulary if the mood is right.

If you are new to French culture, brace yourself. At some point you will be someone’s cabbage. You might be their flea. You could easily end up their shrimp too. And somehow it all sounds tender rather than insulting.

In French, using diminutives and slightly silly words is one of the normal ways to show affection. Where an English speaker might hesitate to call a grown partner “my little chicken,” a French speaker will say it quite casually. It does not feel childish or over the top; it is just another way of being close.

The language itself encourages it, with its love of diminutives. Add “‑ette” or “‑ou” and suddenly a word is smaller, cuter, more precious: “poule” becomes “ma poulette,” “loup” becomes “mon loulou.” French almost dares you to make things adorable.

Feminine or masculine

Before the lists, one rule, because it saves a lot of confusion. The mon or ma matches the word, not the person, you’re talking to.

Chou is a masculine word, so it’s mon chou whoever you’re saying it to, including a woman. You never adjust it to ma chou. Likewise puce is feminine and it’s ma puce every single time. The word decides, not the person.

One extra wrinkle. If a feminine word starts with a vowel, it takes mon anyway, because French hates two vowel sounds bumping into each other. That’s why it’s mon amie, mon âme, mon étoile, all feminine words wearing mon.

Get that and you’ll never have to guess again. It also means the columns below tells you the gender of the word, which is all you need to pick the right possessive.

The animals

A lot of French terms of endearment come from animals, not grand creatures like lions or eagles, but small, familiar ones.

Ma puce is the big one. It sounds ridiculous in English but in French it’s about as warm as a word gets. The idea is something tiny that jumps about and sticks to you, which if you have children is precisely accurate. Once you stop picturing an actual flea it’s lovely.

Mon lapin carries a hint of flirtation, for reasons involving rabbits and their reputation.

One warning: Ma chatte has a second meaning in French exactly like the English one, so unless you know what you’re doing, use mon chaton instead. Same for mon minou, which you may see in the dictionary.

The food

If the farmyard wasn’t enough, French pet names raid the kitchen too.

Mon chou is the one everybody has heard of.

There’s a lovely English footnote too. Prince Philip apparently called the Queen “cabbage”, and it’s thought he picked it up from mon chou, having spent seven years of his childhood in France.

The classics

Not everything is poultry and pâtisserie. There’s a whole set of straightforwardly romantic ones.

Mon trésor is the one I’d defend hardest. My treasure. It sounds almost too much written down in English, and in French it doesn’t at all: it’s what you say to a child who has just handed you a drawing, and it’s what you say to someone at the end of a long day.

Ma moitié rarely makes English lists and it should. It means “my half”, and it’s what French people say where English has “my other half”, except it’s said with rather more feeling and rather less eye-rolling.

The quirky ones

Then there’s a whole category of french terms of love that don’t quite translate at all. These are pure French linguistic playfulness.

Mon doudou is enormous. A doudou is a child’s comfort blanket or soft toy, and the word has expanded to cover any beloved person. Partners use it, parents use it, and it always sounds like being wrapped in something.

Mon loulou and ma louloute are just as common and genuinely nobody agrees where they came from. You’ll hear mon loulou d’amour when someone wants to lay it on thick.

Mon pitchoun comes from Occitan and you’ll hear it constantly in the south, especially for children.

Ma chipie is what you call a girl who’s being cheeky, and it’s said with complete affection even when she’s just done something she shouldn’t have.

A word of warning for learners

“Gros” and “grosse” are affectionate in French.
Yes, they literally mean fat. And French couples call each other mon gros and ma grosse with total tenderness and no insult intended whatsoever. I’d still not be the first person in a relationship to try it.

“Je t’aime” and “je t’aime bien” are not the same thing.
This catches out every learner and it’s the reverse of what you’d expect. Je t’aime is I love you. Je t’aime bien is I like you, as a friend, and adding bien actually makes it weaker rather than stronger. If you tell a French person je t’aime bien while gazing into their eyes, you have just gently friend-zoned them.

Safe and unsafe to use

Some of these are safe anywhere. Some really are not.

Safe to use fairly freely: mon chéri, ma chérie, mon amour, mon cœur, ma belle, mon ange. These are the classics and nobody will find them strange.

Warm but casual, fine with friends: mon chou, ma puce, doudou, ma poule, ma cocotte.

Only for people you’re genuinely close to: ma crevette, mon lapin, mon bout de chou, anything from the food list.

Never at work. Not one of them. It doesn’t matter how friendly the office is.

And a small honest note about pronunciation. Something about being called “my shrimp” in a heavy accent doesn’t land the way you’d hope. But most French people are genuinely delighted when a non-native speaker has a go at these, even a bad go, because it means you’re willing to play along with something quite silly and quite French.

Being willing to look daft is, frankly, most of what these words are about.

FAQ

Over to you

Ma puce has always been my favourite. Small and silly and soft all at once.

Ma belle is what I use for the women I love in my life, my neighbours, my family, my friends. They really are beautiful, inside and out, and the word fits them.

So now you have a toolbox of French words for my love, whether you’re in France for Valentine’s Day or just want to smuggle a bit of French tenderness into your everyday life.

What about you? Tell me, have you been called any of these by a French person? And have any romantic French words successfully made it into your English vocabulary? Share your stories in the comments!

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