Describing Food in French: Hot, Cold, Fresh and Delicious
Learn French adjectives for describing food's overall qualities: chaud, froid, frais, délicieux, and how they agree with the noun they describe.
By MarcusFood & cafés · Yapr Learn
To describe food in French, you need adjectives such as chaud (hot), froid (cold), frais (fresh) and délicieux (delicious). These words describe a dish's overall quality, not its taste like sweet or salty. In French, an adjective usually follows the noun and changes form to agree with it in gender and number: un café chaud, une soupe chaude, des légumes frais. This lesson shows you the most useful forms and where to place them.
By the end, you can…
- describe food as hot, cold, fresh or delicious in French.
- make these adjectives agree with masculine, feminine and plural nouns.
- ask and answer simple questions about a dish's overall quality.
Listen once. Try it slowly. Then say it without looking.
Checking available voices…
Le café est chaud.
The coffee is hot.
luh ka-FEH oh SHOH
Use chaud for a hot drink or dish; the adjective agrees with the masculine noun café.
La soupe est froide.
The soup is cold.
lah SOOP eh FRWAD
Froide is the feminine form of froid, used with la soupe.
Le poisson est frais.
The fish is fresh.
luh pwa-SON eh FREH
Frais describes fresh food; the feminine form is fraîche, as in une salade fraîche.
Ce gâteau est délicieux.
This cake is delicious.
suh ga-TOH eh day-lee-SYUH
Délicieux is masculine; before a feminine noun use délicieuse, as in une tarte délicieuse.
Les légumes sont bons.
The vegetables are good.
lay lay-GOOM son BON
Bon means good or tasty; the feminine is bonne and the plural is bons or bonnes.
Pronunciation guides are approximate. Slow playback keeps the original pitch.
Make it make sense
Useful pattern
Most descriptive adjectives follow the noun: un thé chaud (a hot tea), une pizza froide (a cold pizza), des fruits frais (fresh fruit). The adjective agrees with the noun: masculine singular chaud, feminine singular chaude, masculine plural chauds, feminine plural chaudes. Frais becomes fraîche in the feminine: une salade fraîche. Délicieux becomes délicieuse in the feminine: une soupe délicieuse.
When to use it
Use these adjectives to comment on a dish's overall state or quality, not its basic taste. Say Le pain est frais (The bread is fresh) or La glace est froide (The ice cream is cold). For taste words like sweet or salty, French uses different adjectives such as sucré or salé. In a restaurant you can ask: Le plat est chaud ? (Is the dish hot?) or C'est frais ? (Is it fresh?).
Listen to each line, then take one part and reply out loud.
Bonjour, le plat du jour est chaud ?
Hello, is the dish of the day hot?bon-ZHOOR, luh PLAH doo ZHOOR eh SHOHOui, il est chaud et très bon.
Yes, it is hot and very good.WEE, eel eh SHOH ay treh BONEt la salade, elle est fraîche ?
And the salad, is it fresh?ay lah sa-LAD, el eh FRESHOui, elle est fraîche et délicieuse.
Yes, it is fresh and delicious.WEE, el eh FRESH ay day-lee-SYUZA little context goes a long way
In France, freshness and temperature are common polite topics at the table, and commenting on a dish is normal. Bon and délicieux are warm, everyday compliments. In more formal settings, you can say C'est excellent or C'est très bon. Regional French outside France, such as in Quebec, uses the same adjectives, though pronunciation of frais and froid may differ slightly.
One thing to watch for
Saying une soupe chaud or un café chaude, using the wrong gender form.
Try this instead: Make the adjective agree with the noun: une soupe chaude (feminine) and un café chaud (masculine). The noun's gender controls the ending, not the speaker.
Your turn
Try answering out loud before checking a possible answer.
1How do you say 'The soup is hot' in French?
Show a sample answer
La soupe est chaude.
Soupe is feminine, so chaud becomes chaude. La soupe est chaud would be incorrect because the adjective must agree.
2Which form of frais fits une salade?
Show a sample answer
fraîche
Salade is feminine singular, so frais becomes fraîche: une salade fraîche. The masculine frais would be used with a masculine noun like un poisson frais.
3Translate: 'The cake is delicious.'
Show a sample answer
Le gâteau est délicieux.
Gâteau is masculine singular, so délicieux is correct. For a feminine noun you would use délicieuse, as in une tarte délicieuse.
Place these adjectives after the noun and make them agree: chaud/chaude, froid/froide, frais/fraîche, délicieux/délicieuse. Use them to describe a dish's overall quality, not its taste.
Progress is saved on this browser.
Practice real time conversations on Yapr for faster learning.
Put today’s French into a conversation with an AI tutor. Speak, make mistakes, and try again.
Practice on Yapr