French Clothing Vocabulary: The Complete Guide

You're three days into a trip to Lyon when the weather turns, and you duck into a shop for something warm. The clerk asks, "Vous cherchez quelque chose de précis ?" (Are you looking for something specific?) and you freeze -- you know the French word for "red," but not "sweater," and you have no idea what size you wear on a French tag. You end up pointing at a rack instead of speaking a sentence.

That's the gap this post fixes. Clothing vocabulary isn't glamorous, but you'll use it constantly -- packing for a trip, shopping in an actual French store, describing what someone's wearing. It also brings in two grammar points worth knowing: the difference between porter and mettre (both roughly "to wear," but not interchangeable), and how adjectives agree with clothing nouns. This guide covers the everyday clothing words, those two verbs, and how to ask for your size in a French shop.

Everyday Clothing: Tops, Bottoms & Outerwear

Start with the core wardrobe words -- the ones that come up in packing lists, weather small talk, and casual descriptions of what someone's wearing.

Key Phrases

• Un tee-shirt (tee shirt) -- a T-shirt
• Une chemise (shuh-meez) -- a (button-down) shirt
• Un pull (pool) -- a sweater
• Une robe (rohb) -- a dress
• Une jupe (zhoop) -- a skirt
• Un pantalon (pahn-tah-lohn) -- pants, trousers
• Un jean (jeen) -- jeans
• Un short (short) -- shorts
• Une veste (vest) -- a jacket, a blazer
• Un manteau (mahn-toh) -- a coat

[AUDIO: un pull, une chemise, un manteau]

Grammar Note

Notice un pantalon and un short are singular in French, even though English treats "pants" and "shorts" as plural.

• Correct: j'aime ce pantalon (I like these pants) -- singular article, singular agreement.
• Common mistake: pluralizing out of habit from English -- ces pantalons only works for more than one pair.

Shoes, Accessories & What's Underneath

Everything else -- what's on your feet, around your neck, or carried alongside an outfit -- rounds out the vocabulary you'll need for a real conversation about clothes.

Key Phrases

• Des chaussures (shoh-sewr) -- shoes
• Des baskets (bahs-ket) -- sneakers
• Des bottes (bot) -- boots
• Des sandales (sahn-dahl) -- sandals
• Des chaussettes (shoh-set) -- socks
• Une écharpe (ay-sharp) -- a scarf
• Des gants (gahn) -- gloves
• Un chapeau (shah-poh) -- a hat
• Une ceinture (san-tewr) -- a belt

[AUDIO: des chaussures, une écharpe, des gants]

Grammar Note

Most of these words for pairs -- chaussures, baskets, bottes, chaussettes, gants -- default to plural in French, the same way "shoes" and "gloves" already do in English.

• Common mistake: forgetting that a plural noun needs a plural article -- it's des chaussures, never un chaussures.
• Une paire de (a pair of) lets you talk about just one: une paire de chaussures (a pair of shoes), une paire de gants (a pair of gloves).

Porter vs. Mettre: The Verbs for "Wearing" Something

English gets by with one verb, "to wear," for both having clothes on and the action of putting them on. French splits that job between two verbs, and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes learners make with this topic.

Grammar Note

Porter (to wear) describes the state -- what's currently on your body -- while mettre (to put on) describes the action of getting a piece of clothing on. S'habiller (to get dressed), a reflexive verb, covers the whole process without naming a specific item.

• Porter (regular -er verb): je porte, tu portes, il/elle porte, nous portons, vous portez, ils/elles portent.
• Mettre (irregular): je mets, tu mets, il/elle met, nous mettons, vous mettez, ils/elles mettent.
• Elle porte une robe bleue (she's wearing a blue dress) -- the state, no motion involved.
• Elle met une robe bleue avant de sortir (she's putting on a blue dress before going out) -- the action of getting it on.
• Common mistake: using porter for the action, producing je porte mon manteau pour sortir when je mets mon manteau pour sortir is what a French speaker would actually say.
• Enlever means "to take off": il enlève ses chaussures (he takes off his shoes).

Describing Clothes and Asking for Your Size

Clothing nouns take adjectives like any other French noun, so color and size words need to agree in gender and number -- and shopping for your size means learning two French-specific words first.

Key Phrases

• La taille (tie) -- size (clothing)
• La pointure (pwan-tewr) -- size (shoes)
• Quelle taille faites-vous ? (kel tie fet-voo) -- What size are you? (a clerk asking)
• Je fais du 38 (zhuh feh dew trahnt-weet) -- I'm a size 38
• C'est trop grand / trop petit (seh troh grahn / troh puh-tee) -- It's too big / too small
• Est-ce que je peux l'essayer ? (es kuh zhuh puh less-ay-yay) -- Can I try it on?

[AUDIO: quelle taille faites-vous, je fais du 38]

Grammar Note

Adjectives describing clothing agree in gender and number with the clothing noun, exactly like the color rules covered in our colors guide.

• une chemise blanche (a white shirt) -- feminine agreement
• un pantalon noir (black pants) -- masculine, no change needed
• des chaussures noires (black shoes) -- feminine plural
• Common mistake: matching the adjective to what the item looks like rather than the grammatical gender of the noun -- une veste is feminine even for a men's jacket.

French clothing sizes follow the EU system, which doesn't line up with US or UK sizing -- a US women's size 8 is roughly a French 40, and a men's US shoe size 9 is close to a French 42. Trying things on beats guessing from your usual size. It's also still common in smaller boutiques for a clerk to greet you the moment you walk in -- "Je peux vous aider ?" isn't a sign they think you look lost, it's just how French shops tend to work.

Shopping for Clothes: Putting It All Together

Picture yourself back in that Lyon shop, this time with the vocabulary ready. Instead of pointing, you answer: "Je cherche un pull, en bleu si possible." (I'm looking for a sweater, in blue if possible.) She hands you one, you ask "Est-ce que je peux l'essayer ?" and step into the fitting room. It's snug, so you come back out with "C'est un peu trop petit, vous avez une taille au-dessus ?" (It's a little too small, do you have a size up?) -- a full exchange, built entirely from this post.

Practice Exercises

• Fill in the blank: Il ___ (porter) un manteau noir aujourd'hui.
• Fill in the blank: Avant de sortir, elle ___ (mettre) ses gants.
• Translate into French: "I'm looking for a red dress in a size 40."
• Multiple choice: which is correct for "socks"? (a) une chaussette (b) des chaussettes (c) un chaussette
• Fill in the blank with correct agreement: J'ai acheté une veste ___. (blue)
• True or false: porter and mettre both work equally well for the action of putting a piece of clothing on.

Answer Key

• Il porte un manteau noir aujourd'hui.
• Avant de sortir, elle met ses gants.
• Je cherche une robe rouge en taille 40.
• (b) Des chaussettes -- chaussette is always plural for a pair, and feminine.
• J'ai acheté une veste bleue.
• False -- mettre is for the action of putting something on; porter describes wearing it, already on your body.

Your Wardrobe, In French

• Everyday clothing words split into pieces you wear (un pull, une robe, un manteau) and pairs that default to plural (des chaussures, des gants, des chaussettes).
• Porter describes wearing something as a state, while mettre describes the action of putting it on -- mixing the two up is the most common mistake with this topic.
• Clothing adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun, and French sizes (taille for clothes, pointure for shoes) run on the EU system, not the US or UK one.

Next time you're packing for a trip, try describing three items in your closet out loud using porter -- and head over to Vocabulary to drill these words with audio, or try the Grammar lessons on adjective agreement to make colors and clothes click together.