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Pièce, chambre or salle? Explore the rooms in a French flat

Explore a French flat and learn when room means pièce, chambre or salle. Practise complete room names, useful questions and feminine agreement.

In short

Use une pièce for a room in general and une chambre for a bedroom or hotel room. Une salle appears in room names such as la salle de bains and la salle à manger: learn the whole name, including de or à.

Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn

A bright French dining room with a simple table and an open doorway revealing a bedroom.
The adjoining rooms distinguish salle à manger and chambre. Illustration: Atelier

une piècea room

Focus: light, size or position, with the function left open

Cette pièce donne sur le jardin.
This room looks out onto the garden.

une chambrea bedroom; a hotel room

Focus: a room for sleeping

Les enfants dorment dans cette chambre.
The children sleep in this bedroom.

une sallea room; a hall

Focus: an established name linked to an activity

Nous mangeons dans la salle à manger.
We eat in the dining room.

A flat tour: tap the rooms, then find them

A bright flat viewed from above as a cutaway, with clearly separated rooms: a bedroom with a double bed, a living room with a sofa, a kitchen with a hob, a dini

What is the difference between pièce, chambre and salle?

Pendant la visite
  1. Visiteuse

    Cette pièce est très lumineuse. C’est le salon ?

    This room is very bright. Is it the living room?

  2. Propriétaire

    Oui. Et voici la salle à manger.

    Yes. And here is the dining room.

  3. Visiteuse

    Combien y a-t-il de chambres ?

    How many bedrooms are there?

  4. Propriétaire

    Il y en a une, au fond du couloir.

    There is one, at the end of the corridor.

Keep these room names together
FrenchEnglishDetail
une salle de réuniona meeting roomUse de.
une salle de classea classroomUse de.
une salle à mangera dining roomUse à.
une chambre d’hôtela hotel roomDe becomes d’ before the vowel.

All three target nouns are feminine: une grande pièce, une chambre calme, une salle lumineuse. Size alone does not choose the noun: a small bathroom is still une salle de bains. A listing with deux pièces gives a room count; ask Combien y a-t-il de chambres ? when you need the number of bedrooms.

Question 1No account needed
You need a hotel room for two people. Complete the request.Je voudrais une ___ pour deux personnes.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

chambre. A hotel guest room is une chambre, just as a bedroom is.

Question 2No account needed
Choose the established name for a dining room.

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

une salle à manger. The full expression is une salle à manger, with à.

Question 3No account needed
Which question asks specifically about bedrooms?

Choose one answer.

Answer and explanation

Combien y a-t-il de chambres ?. Chambres singles out sleeping rooms; the other questions ask about light and location.