Engineering Terminology in French

This guide is designed to help engineering students and researchers to familiarize themselves with engineering-specific terms in French. If you would like any help with finding engineering terms in French, please feel free to schedule an appointment. Good places to start are by:

• consulting free online resources

• consulting French-English engineering dictionaries and reference works, arranged by the following subdisciplines:

  • General Engineering

  • Bioengineering

  • Chemical Engineering

  • Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

  • Mining and Materials Engineering

• listening to and watching science and engineering content in French

To navigate this research guide, use the navigation menu located on the left of the web page.

If you have comments or suggestions related to these resources, please contact me!

Government sites

Learn and practice engineering vocabulary in French using Du génie au travail: vocabulaire de l’ingénierie (Office québécois de la langue française). It offers three subsections:

• Vocabulary by theme
  • This resource provides French pronunciation of engineering terms. It does not give English translations.
• Méli-mélo de mots (translation: a hodgepodge of words)
  • This resource provides interactive games for practicing engineering terminology. It gives French pronunciation of terms. It does not give English translations.
• Du génie au travail: vocabulaire de l'ingénierie
  • This resource pulls terms from le Grand dictionnaire terminologique, a comprehensive database of specialized terms and definitions. The glossary of engineering terms is arranged alphabetically and provides English translations.

Use Vitrine linguistique (Office québécois de la langue française) to translate technical terms between English and French. It contains le Grand dictionnaire terminologique:

• Vitrine linguistique

Use TERMIUM Plus (Government of Canada) to translate engineering vocabulary between English and French. It is geared to terminology for specialized fields:

• TERMIUM Plus

Online translators

Use these online translators for effectively translating engineering terminology between English and French: 

• deepL
• Reverso

One great way to improve your knowledge of engineering terminology in French is by reading and listening to French-language content about science and engineering. Here are some podcasts and video episodes to get you started:

• Découverte
  • Watch episodes from Radio-Canada's weekly show on the world of science.
• Entre Génies
  • Learn about innovative research from professors and alumni in engineering from this podcast produced by l'Université Laval in Québec City.
• Les années lumière
  • Listen to Radio-Canada's weekly show on scientific news and culture.

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