Talking About Pets in French

French offers a variety of ways to talk about pets—les animaux de compagnie—and understanding how to describe them naturally is key. Let’s start with the sentence structures, then explain the grammar behind the scenes.

Sentence Builder: Talking About Pets

Talking About Where

Use chez + pronoun to say “at someone’s place”:

Example:
→ Il a un chat chez lui = He has a cat at his place

Irregular Plurals in Pet Vocabulary

Now that you’ve seen the words in action, here’s how their plurals work:

1. Nouns ending in -au, -eu, -eau

These take -x in the plural:

• un oiseau → les oiseaux (bird → birds)
• un cheveu → les cheveux (hair strand → hair)

2. Nouns ending in -al

These change to -aux:

• le cheval → les chevaux (horse → horses)
• un animal de compagnie → les animaux de compagnie (pet → pets)

3. Nouns ending in -s, -x, -z

These do not change in the plural:

• la souris → les souris (mouse → mice)
• un nez → les nez (nose → noses)

Tip: These irregular plurals are common throughout French vocabulary, so it’s worth memorizing the patterns early.

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