French computer vocabulary words and phrases
French computer vocabulary
The following list of French vocabulary concerns computers and Internet, this will be useful to many English speaking people who are already in France, reading through a French web pages, or perhaps if you are communicating with a French person via the Internet.
Many high-tech words have the same spelling in French and English, however the pronunciation will often change because of the tonic accent on the vowels, take for example the English word "WIFI", in French it is pronounced "wee-fee". Another example is Linux, in French it is pronounced "lee-nux".
Other abbreviations such as ROM, ADSL, Internet just sound the same, so you should not have too much difficulty.
Just for information, if you are in France and need to use a computer do not forget that the keyboard has a different layout to the standard keyboard, in France you will use an AZERTY keyboard instead of the normal QWERTY. Not only will many of the letters change place, but the row for numbers is different, you will have to use the shift key to access the numbers from 1 to 9, without the shift you will have access to many of the French accents.
A fun article about writing in French SMS style.
Computer terminology in French
| English | French |
|---|---|
| The avatar | L'avatar (m) |
| The background screen | Le fond d'écran |
| The bandwidth | La bande passante |
| The blog | Le blogue |
| The bot | Le robot |
| The broadband, High speed Internet | Le haut-débit |
| The bug | Le beug/le beugue |
| The cable | Le câble |
| The CDROM player | Le lecteur CDROM |
| The central processing unit (CPU) | Le processeur |
| The click (of mouse) | Le clique |
| The community manager | L'animateur de communauté (m) |
| The computer | L'ordinateur (m) |
| The computer hardware | Le matériel informatique |
| The computeur scientist | L'informaticien |
| Computing | L'informatique |
| The configuration panel | Le panneau de configuration |
| The controller/gamepad | La manette |
| The crash | Le plantage |
| The cursor | Le curseur |
| Cut/Copy/Paste | Couper/Copier/Coller |
| cyberspace | Le cyberespace |
| The database | La base de données |
| Deconnect / logout | Déconnexion |
| The dialog box | La boîte de dialogue |
| The digital collection/library | La bibliothèque numérique |
| The digital identity | L'idendité numérique (f) |
| The download | Le téléchargement |
| The driver | Le pilote |
| Le courriel/le courrier électronique/le mail | |
| The email attachment | La pièce jointe |
| eSports | Le sport électronique |
| The file | Le fichier |
| firewall | Le pare-feu |
| flash memory | La mémoire flash |
| gameplay | La jouabilité |
| gaming console | La console de jeux vidéo |
| hard disk | Le disque dur |
| headset | Le micro-casque |
| Icon | L'icône (m) |
| image scanner | Le scanneur/le numériseur |
| Instant messaging/chat | Messagerie instantanée/tchat |
| internet forum | Le forum |
| IRC (Internet Relay Chat) | Discussion relayée par Internet |
| ISP (Internet service provider) | Le FIA (fournisseur d'accès Internet) |
| key (on keyboard) | La touche |
| keyboard | Le clavier |
| laptop | L'ordinateur portable (m) |
| link | Le lien |
| Login | Connexion |
| MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) | Le jeu en ligne massivement multijoueur |
| moderator | Le modérateur |
| motherboard | La carte mère |
| mouse | La souris |
| multiplayer | Le multijoueur (m) |
| network | Le réseau |
| network interface card | La carte réseau |
| operating system | Le système d'exploitation |
| password | Le mot de passe |
| peripheral device | Le périphérique |
| power supply unit | Le bloc d'alimentation |
| printer | L'imprimante |
| program | Le logiciel |
| pseudonym/alias | Le pseudonyme |
| RAM | La mémoire vive |
| Role playing game | Le jeu de rôle |
| ROM | La mémoire morte |
| screen | L'écran (m) |
| Screen shot | La capture d'écran |
| search engine | Le moteur de recherches |
| server | Le serveur |
| shortcut | Le raccourci |
| Slow speed Internet | Le bas-débit |
| smiley (emotional icon) | L'émoticône (m) |
| social network | Le réseau social |
| sound | Le son |
| speaker | L'enceinte (f) |
| spreadsheet | La feuille de calcul |
| spreadsheet program | Le tableur |
| spyware | L'espiongiciel (m) |
| system administrator | L'administrateur système (m) |
| thumbnail | La mignature/la vignette |
| toolbar | La barre d'outils |
| touchscreen | L'écran tactile (m) |
| tower (central unit) | La tour centrale |
| trash | La corbeille |
| update | La mise à jour |
| upload | Le téléversement |
| USB flash drive | La clé USB |
| user | L'utilisateur (m) |
| user interface | L'interface utilisateur (f) |
| video card | La carte graphique |
| video game | Le jeu vidéo |
| virtual world/online world | Le monde virtuel |
| Web | La Toile |
| web developer | Le développeur web |
| The web site | Le site web |
| The webmaster | Le webmaster/le webmestre |
| The word processor | Le traitement de texte |
Comments
The French translation for Email is officially "Le courriel", this is in the attempt to preserve the French language by the purists, there are also other examples such as Cédérom for CDROM...