50 French Beach Terms & Practice Videos 🏝

Here is a list of French beach terms with English translation and videos with French and English subtitles to help you practice.

Would you like to help me complete this list? Please leave your suggestions in French with English translation in the comment below and I’ll add them to the list. Thank you!

French Beach Vocabulary

1. La plage – the beach
2. Être à la plage – to be on the beach
3. Aller à la plage – to go to the beach
4. Le sable – the sand
5. Les coquillages (m) – seashells
6. Une algue – seaweed
7. Une plage de sable – a sand beach
8. Une plage de galets – a round pebble beach
9. Une crique – a little beach between cliffs
10. Une dune de sable – a sand dune
11. Un banc de sable – a sand banc, a temporary island
12. Une falaise – a cliff
13. Une baie – a bay
14. Une péninsule – a peninsula
15. Un rocher – a rock
16. Une côte – a coast
17. Une île – an island
18. La mer – the sea
19. L’océan – the ocean (watch out the pronunciation o – say – an/nasal)
20. Une vague – a wave (strong French “a” sound, don’t say it like the word “vague”)
21. L’eau (f) – the water (pronounced “lo”)
22. Un courant – a current
23. Le vent – the wind
24. La marée haute – high tide
25. La marée basse – low tide
26. Un pin – a pine tree
27. Un bateau – a boat
28. Nager – to swim
29. Se baigner – to bath… so swim or just play around in the water
30. Bronzer – to tan
31. Attraper un coup de soleil – to get sunburnt
32. Se relaxer – to relax
33. Ramasser des coquillages – to collect seashells

17 Beach Items Terms in French

1. Une serviette de plage – a beach towel
2. Un parasol – sun umbrella
3. De la crème solaire – sunscreen
4. Un maillot de bain – bathing suit (pronounce it [mayo]
5. Un chapeau – a hat
6. Des sandales (f) – sandals
7. Une bouée – buoy or inflatable floats etc…
8. Une chaise longue – lounge chair
9. Un seau – a pail
10. Un râteau – a rake
11. Une pelle – a shovel (watch out! a pail ≠ une pelle…)
12. Un moule – a mould (watch out! une moule = a mussel!!)
13. Faire un château de sable – to make a sand castle
14. Un masque – mask
15. Un tuba – snorkel (yeah, I know, it’s funny!!)
16. Des palmes (f) – fins
17. Faire de la plongée libre / faire du masque et du tuba – to snorkel

How To Talk About the Water Temperature in French?

The most common conversation at the beach is to talk about the water temperature. You may know how to use cold and hot in French.

Ahhh, elle est bien chaude – Ahhh, it’s nicely warm (“elle” because water in French, l’eau, is feminine in French. Pronounce the final d of chaude.
Brrrr, elle est froide – Brrrr, it’s cold! Pronounce the final d of froide.

But did you know the French use some typical French food expressions to talk about the water? Not all food expressions can be used, but these work:

1. elle est bonne – it’s nice, enjoyable
2. elle est délicieuse – it’s really nice – literally it’s delicious!
3. elle est exquise – it’s fantastic

These 3 expressions are featured in my second video below.

At the Beach in France – Video Practice

If you’d like to practice your French, here are 3 videos I made while I was at the beach in France, Brittany.

In this “live” video shot as I was going for a swim, I’ll cover a lof of bit of the beach/ swimming vocabulary and also the stone vocabulary.

In this video, I’ll take you for a swim and tell you how to talk about the water temperature in French, and tell you about a very special beach in Paimpol.

In this video, my daughter and I will take you for a swim with us (I shot as I was in the water!) and tell you about the historic “plage Bonaparte” in Brittany.