What are the French names for different countries?

It’s important to know the names of different countries in French, especially when it comes to making introductions. Luckily, many of the names for countries are not so dissimilar from their English translations. It’s important to note, however, that in French we use the article before the name of the country.

As countries are nouns, they have genders. It’s important to take note of which countries are masculine and which are feminine so that you know which article to use with them. A useful rule of thumb is that countries ending in -e tend to be feminine - but that isn’t always the case.

Note that some countries do not take an article.

Another thing to bear in mind is that we use the preposition ‘en’ when referring to a feminine country, 'au' when referring to a masculine country and 'aux' when the country is plural. rather than ‘à’. For instance, you would say ‘je vais en Suède’, not ‘je vais à Suède’. You’ll also notice that when using ‘en’ before the name of a country, we don’t use the article.

Just as in English, some countries are sometimes referred to by different names, depending on the context or the inclination of the speaker. Examples include:

la Biélorussie/le Bélarus | Belarus

les Pays-Bas/la Hollande | Netherlands

la Birmanie/le Myanmar | Myanmar (Burma)

le Swaziland/l'Eswatini | Eswatini

la Macédoine/la Macédoine du Nord | North Macedonia

la République tchèque/la Tchéquie | Czech Republic/Czechia

Corée du Sud/Corée | South Korea

Below are the names for different countries in French with their translations. Can you guess how many of these countries speak French as their official language?

L’Afrique | Africa

L'Amérique centrale | Central America

L’Amérique du Nord | North America

L’Amérique du Sud | South America

L’Asie | Asia

L’Océanie | Oceania

L’Europe | Europe