Michelle Baumgartner
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Stay Starstruck: Talk About Astronomy in French with Essential Vocab and Resources
When you first started studying French, you might have been starstruck.
Quelle belle langue! (What a beautiful language!)
You still love the language, of course. But now you’re starting to feel a little… attaché(e) à la terre (Earthbound).
How can you make your love for French sparkle and shine as it once did?
Well, we’re going to move heaven and earth to put your French studies back on a celestial trajectory.
That’s right: We’re learning how to talk about astronomy in French.
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Why Study Astronomy in French?
Studying astronomy terms in French might seem like an otherworldly idea. However, learning this vocabulary can really expand your horizons.
Explore strange new worlds
Your early French vocab lists probably included a lot of nature words—like l’arbre (tree), l’oiseau (bird), le nuage (cloud) and la fleur (flower).
Chances are, you also learned le soleil (sun), la lune (moon), l’étoile (star) and le ciel (sky). But that’s likely where your foray into French astronomy ended.
As you continue to build your French vocabulary, why not look to the heavens for inspiration? After all, astronomy words in French will help you describe an important part of nature.
Follow French astronomy
Develop a robust knowledge of French astronomical terms, and you can use original sources to learn more about both historical and contemporary French astronomers:
- Charles Messier (1730-1817): Discovered 13 comets and 40 nebulae, recorded in le Catalogue de Messier.
- Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1826): Theorized black holes and calculated planetary orbits; wrote “Le Traité de mécanique céleste” (“Treatise on Celestial Mechanics”).
- André-Louis Danjon (1890-1967): Designed the Danjon astrolabe to more accurately measure of heavenly bodies and their motion; devised the Danjon Scale of Lunar Eclipse Brightness.
- Audouin Charles Dollfus (1924-2010): Discovered Janus, one of the moons of Saturn.
How to Practice French Astronomy Terms
When it comes to practicing your French astronomy vocab, you won’t be left in a void! Here are a few resources you can use to keep the stars aligned.
Celestial poetry
Explore the universe in the measured verse of such renowned French poets as Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine and Théodore Faullain de Banville.
Suggested reading:
- “Saturne” (“Saturn”) and “La Voie lactée” (“The Milky Way”) by Victor Hugo.
- “La lune blanche…” (“The White Moon”) and “Clair de lune” (“Moonlight”) by Paul Verlaine.
La science-fiction
Try out your knowledge of astronomy in French while enjoying the works of such science-fiction luminaries as Jules Verne and Pierre Boulle.
Suggested reading:
- “De la terre à la lune” (“From the Earth to the Moon”) and its sequel, “Autour de la lune” (“Around the Moon”) by Jules Verne. A Steampunk dream duo of tales about the first (fictional) moon landing.
- “Voyage à Vénus” (“Voyage to Venus”) by Archille Eyraud. Journey by rocket ship to an ideal Venusian society.
- “La Planète des singes” (“Planet of the Apes”) by Pierre Boulle. From the writer of “Le Pont de la rivière Kwai” (“The Bridge on the River Kwai”) comes a classic tale of space travel and adventure.
Suggested viewing:
- “Missions,” a French science-fiction TV series about a crew voyaging to Mars.
Stargaze à la française (the French way)
If you’re already a stargazer, you can use your hobby to increase fluency. There are numerous guides for les observations célestes (celestial observations), such as “Petit guide du ciel” (“Little Sky Guide”) by Bernard Pellequer or “Guide de l’astronome débutant” (“Beginning Astronomer’s Guide”) by Vincent Jean Victor.
These YouTube channels will also guide your studies of l’astronomie (astronomy):
- À Ciel Ouvert (To the Open Sky): A short series of videos to introduce concepts such as lunar eclipses and the rotation of the Earth.
- Astronomie Pratique: Apprendre l’astronomie en partant de 0 (Practical Astronomy: Learn Astronomy from Zero): Tips for calibrating and using les jumelles (binoculars) and un télescope (a telescope) for stargazing, along with information about constellations and stellar phenomena.
- Above Earth: Découvrir l’univers autrement (Discover the Universe differently): Videos about outer space, the stars and space travel.
L’ultime frontière (the final frontier)
Follow news stories from CNES, the Centre National d’Études Spatiales (France’s National Center for Space Studies). The site includes a library of short videos on various topics, such as Mars exploration.
Watch footage about French spationautes (astronauts), such as Thomas Pesquet, who have worked and lived aboard la Station Spatiale Internationale (the International Space Station).
Suggested viewing:
- “Rue des étoiles” (“Star Street”) by Grégoire.
- “Terre: la planète bleue” (“Earth: the Blue Planet”) by Réseau Canopé.
- “Sans la Lune, les humains n’auraient jamais existé” (“Without the Moon, Humans Would Have Never Existed”) by Le Monde.
Talk About Astronomy in French with Essential Vocab and Resources
Grab ton télescope (your telescope) and get ready to scope out the heavens for scintillating French astronomy vocabulary!
Le soleil (The Sun)
Pendant une tempête solaire, il y a des éruptions solaires et le vent solaire accélère. (During a solar storm, there are solar flares and the solar wind accelerates.)
solaire — solar
le Système Solaire — solar system
une éruption solaire — solar flare
une tempête solaire — solar storm
une tache solaire — sunspot
un rayon du soleil — sunbeam
une éclipse de soleil — solar eclipse
le vent solaire — solar wind
une héliosphère — heliosphere
La lune (The Moon)
Les phases de la lune comprennent la nouvelle lune, le croissant de lune et la pleine lune. (The phases of the moon include new moon, crescent moon and full moon.)
croître — to wax
décroître — to wane
les phases de la lune — phases of the moon
le croissant de lune — crescent
la pleine lune — full moon
la nouvelle lune — new moon
lunaire — lunar
la cratère lunaire — lunar crater
une éclipse lunaire — lunar eclipse
une roche lunaire — moon rock
le clair de lune — moonlight
La terre (The Earth)
L’atmosphère de la terre est protégée par la couche d’ozone. (The Earth’s atmosphere is protected by the ozone layer.)
terrestre — earthly
terre-à-terre — earthbound
une atmosphère — atmosphere
la stratosphère — stratosphere
la gravité — gravity
la couche d’ozone — ozone layer
Le voyage spatial (Space Travel)
Le spationaute portait une combinaison spatiale et un casque d’astronaute pendant sa sortie dans l’espace. (The astronaut wore a spacesuit and a space helmet during his space walk.)
l’espace extra-atmosphérique (m.) — outer space
la galaxie — galaxy
l’univers (m.) — universe
la Voie lactée — Milky Way
mettre quelque chose en orbite — to put something in orbit
une orbite terrestre basse — low Earth orbit
une orbite décroissante — decaying orbit
la fusée — rocket
le lancement de fusée — rocket launch
la navette spatiale — space shuttle
le spationaute — astronaut
la combinaison spatiale — space suit
le casque d’astronaute — space helmet
la sortie dans l’espace — space walk
la charge utile — payload
la station spatiale — space station
le complexe orbital — orbiting space station
le centre de contrôle — mission control
le satellite — satellite
Les planètes (The Planets)
Les planètes du Système Solaire sont Mercure, Vénus, Terre, Mars, Jupiter, Saturne, Uranus et Neptune; Pluton est considéré une planète naine. (The planets of the Solar System are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; Pluto is considered a dwarf planet.)
Mercure — Mercury
Vénus — Venus
Terre — Earth
Mars — Mars
Jupiter — Jupiter
Saturne — Saturn
Uranus — Uranus
Neptune — Neptune
une planète naine — dwarf planet
Pluton — Pluto
Les étoiles (The Stars)
Une naine blanche est plus petite et moins lumineuse qu’un géant rouge. (A white dwarf is smaller and less bright than a red giant.)
Sirius — Sirius, the Dog Star
l’Étoile polaire — Polaris, the North Star
une supernova — supernova
une étoile filante — shooting star
une étoile à neutrons — neutron star
un trou noir — black hole
une naine blanche — white dwarf
une naine rouge — red dwarf
un pulsar — pulsar
la supergéante — supergiant
la géante rouge — red giant
une étoile variable — variable star
Les constellations (The Constellations)
Les noms pour les constellations—comme le Chasseur, le Centaure et Pégase—viennent souvent de la mythologie. (Names for constellations—like Orion, Centaurus and Pegasus—often come from mythology.)
la Grande Ourse — Ursa Major
le Grand Chien — Canis Major
le Petit Chien — Canis Minor
Cassiopée — Cassiopeia
le Centaure — Centaurus
le Chasseur — Orion (the Hunter)
la Balance — Libra (the Scales)
Pégase — Pegasus (the Horse)
les Poissons — Pisces (the Fish)
le Sagittaire — Sagittarius
le Taureau — Taurus (the Bull)
la Grande Casserole — the Big Dipper
la Petite Casserole — the Little Dipper
Les comètes et les nébuleuses (Comets and Nebulas)
Grâce aux nuages gazeux en eux, les nébuleuses comme la nébuleuse du Crabe et la nébuleuse de la Tête de Cheval sont souvent vivement colorées. (Thanks to the gas clouds within them, nebulae such as the Crab Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula are often brightly colored.)
une comète — comet
la queue de la comète — comet’s tail
un amas ouvert — open cluster
un nuage gazeux – gas cloud
une nebuleuse — nebula
la nébuleuse de la Tête de Cheval — Horsehead Nebula
la nébuleuse du Crabe — Crab Nebula
un astéroïde — asteroid
une ceinture d’astéroïde — asteroid belt
une singularité gravitationnelle — gravitational singularity
Equipped with these terms for talking about astronomy in French, tu ne seras jamais perdu dans l’espace (you’ll never be lost in space)!
