Skip to Main

La Musique et les Instruments — French vocabulary | Vocabulary

🖨️ Print-friendly: use Ctrl+P (⌘P) or your browser menu to print this chart cleanly.

Playing, listening, and the jouer-de rule. This French playing listening jouer-de rule vocabulary list gives you 22 essential words — from le piano (piano) to la variété française (French pop / chanson) — each with audio and its English translation. Use it to build the French words you need to talk about playing listening jouer-de rule, then test yourself with the games below.

La Musique et les Instruments

Playing, listening, and the jouer-de rule

Les instruments 🎸

le pianopiano
la guitareguitar
le violonviolin
la batteriedrums
la flûteflute
le saxophonesaxophone
le chantsinging
le clavierkeyboard

Écouter & jouer 🎵

la musiquemusic
une chansona song
un chanteur / une chanteusea singer
un groupea band
un concerta concert
un orchestrean orchestra
une mélodiea melody
les parolesthe lyrics

Les genres 🎤

le rockrock
le raprap
le jazzjazz
la musique classiqueclassical music
la poppop
la variété françaiseFrench pop / chanson
📚 Free French lessons at learnfrench.co

🎬 The 20-second version

5 quick questions on « La Musique et les Instruments » — guess before the reveal. Practise with the free games → Open this short as a page — transcript included →

📘 The golden rule: jouer DE

  • Jouer DE + instrument: jouer du piano, de la guitare, du violon (de + le = du). This mirrors jouer À for sports/games.
  • Faire de + music activity too: faire de la guitare, faire du chant — very common.
  • Écouter takes NO preposition: j’écoute de la musique (I listen to music).
  • The French love la chanson française (Brel, Piaf, Stromae) — a great, clear way to train your ear.
  • Useful: « Tu joues d’un instrument ? » (do you play an instrument?), « C’est quoi comme musique ? »

🔊 Useful phrases

Je joue du piano depuis dix ans.I’ve played the piano for ten years.
Tu écoutes quoi comme musique ?What kind of music do you listen to?
On va à un concert ce soir.We’re going to a concert tonight.
J’adore cette chanson !I love this song!

🔊 Example sentences

Elle joue de la guitare et chante.She plays guitar and sings.
Ce groupe fait de la très bonne musique.This band makes really good music.
Les paroles sont magnifiques.The lyrics are beautiful.

✍️ Practice

to play the piano = jouer ___ piano (de + le)

Show answer

du

a song = une ___ (music)

Show answer

chanson

a singer (f) = une ___ (the person)

Show answer

chanteuse

🎮 Practise this with games

🎯 More practice — vocabulary recall — both directions

How do you say « piano »? (recall)

Show answer

le piano

What does « le violon » mean? (recall)

Show answer

violin

How do you say « flute »? (recall)

Show answer

la flûte

What does « le chant » mean? (recall)

Show answer

singing

How do you say « music »? (recall)

Show answer

la musique

What does « un groupe » mean? (recall)

Show answer

a band

How do you say « an orchestra »? (recall)

Show answer

un orchestre

What does « les paroles » mean? (recall)

Show answer

the lyrics

French playing listening jouer-de rule vocabulary — FAQ

How do you say common playing listening jouer-de rule words in French?

For example: piano is « le piano », guitar is « la guitare », violin is « le violon ». The full list above has 22 French playing listening jouer-de rule words, each with audio so you can hear the pronunciation.

What are the most useful French playing listening jouer-de rule words to learn first?

Start with the basics: le piano (piano), la guitare (guitar), le violon (violin), la batterie (drums), la flûte (flute), le saxophone (saxophone). Master these core French words before moving on to the rest of the list.

How can I memorise French playing listening jouer-de rule vocabulary?

Learn the words in small themed groups, say each one out loud with the audio, and use it in a short sentence about your own life. Spaced repetition is what makes new vocabulary stick — see our guide to learning French vocabulary that sticks.

🎮 Practise this lesson

Games built from this exact page — turn what you just read into play:

🧩 Sentence Builder rebuild these sentences

🃏 Memory Match pair FR ↔ EN

🎧 Listening Game which sentence do you hear?

More games in the arcade →

Learn faster with a native teacher — book a free lesson →
📢 Share this lesson: