Vocabulary list
Bagnole or voiture: casual car vocabulary in French
Bagnole is a familiar word for voiture. Compare the same car in two registers, name visible features and learn why a train carriage is also a voiture.
- B1
- 6 words
- Gender marked
- With examples
- Learn this in the B1 notebook →
In short
Une bagnole is a familiar word for a car; une voiture is the neutral everyday word. Both can name the same vehicle. Bagnole adds a casual tone; adjectives such as vieille tell you its age.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Two names for the same car
Details supplied by other words
On a train
Look for the detail, then name it
Find:
Is bagnole rude in French?
| Audience | French | English |
|---|---|---|
| A friend | Ma bagnole rouge est devant la gare. | My red car is outside the station. |
| A neutral enquiry | Ma voiture rouge est devant la gare. | My red car is outside the station. |
The location and colour stay the same. The familiar noun can appear in a happy sentence, too: J’adore ma nouvelle bagnole ! For a neutral enquiry, voiture is the straightforward choice. Both nouns are feminine: une bagnole rouge, une voiture rouge.
- Samir
On prend ta bagnole ou le train ?
Shall we take your car or the train?
- Nora
Le train. Ma voiture est au garage.
The train. My car is at the garage.
- Samir
D’accord. On est dans quelle voiture ?
All right. Which carriage are we in?
- Nora
La voiture numéro deux.
Carriage number two.
Samir first uses bagnole for Nora’s road car. Later he uses voiture for a railway carriage. On a ticket or in a train announcement, voiture can identify the carriage containing your seat. Keep that train meaning when you translate the journey.