61 French Onomatopoiea (Written Sound) & Their

English Counterparts

HUMAN SOUNDS
French English
1 Sleeping Ron-ron zzz
2 Snoring ron-pshi
3 Crying baby ouin-ouin wah-wah
aïe ! ouille, ayoye (Qc), Ouch
4 Expressing pain (Qc), Aw (Qc) ouch! / ow! / argh!
5 Drinking glou-glou glug-glug
6 Sneezing atchoum achoo
7 Beating heart poum-poum / boum boum thump-thump / lub-dub
8 Hushing someone chut shhh / hush
9 Expressing disgust beurk / berk yuck
yum-yum / nomnom /
10 Eating miam-miam slurp-slurp
11 Bite sound miam chomp/ munch/ nom
12 Burping sound beurp burp
13 Throat swallowing gloups gulp
14 Laughter hahaha, héhéhé, hihihi ha-ha, hahaha, tee-hee!
15 Sound of a kiss smack / mouah smooch / mwah
16 Thinking / pause heu, euh er, erm, uh, uhm
Expressing indifference or
17 skepticism bof uh huh / hmm
18 Expressing relief ouf phew
19 Fart prout, pête fart/ poot/ toot
20 Yawning ouaaah yawn

SOUNDS BY OBJECTS
21 Sound of a clock tic-tac tick-tock
22 Ringing phone dring-dring ring-ring
23 Gunshot soound pan-pan bang-bang
24 Ambulance siren pin-pon wee-woo
25 Doorbell sound dingue-dongue ding-dong
Object falling on the
26 ground patatra kaboom /splat
27 Object falling on water plouf splash
28 Water dripping plic-plic / pli-ploc drip-drip
29 Explosion boum boom
30 Balloon or bubble bursting bang, hop pop
boom, bam, wham,
slam, bang, crash,
31 Crash bing, bang, boum, bam, vlan clash, pow
32 Door or floor creaking creak crac
33 Knocking toc toc knock knock
34 Falling strike floc plop, splat, thud, thunk
clang, clink, clank,
clunk, chink, dink, tink,
35 Glass/sharp object falling paf, bim, bam plink
36 Camera shutter clic click
room vroom, broom
37 Car engine revving vroum vroum broom
honk honk, beep beep,
38 Car horn honking tut-tut toot toot
click click, click clack,
39 Keyboard sounds clic clic taka taka
40 Electric shock xzite zap
Wind blowing or waves
41 flowing frou-frou, vromb, murmur, hurl whoo, whoosh, swish
42 Train sounds tchou tchou choo-choo

Animal Sounds
43 Pig grunting groin-groin oink-oink
44 Ducks quacking coin-coin quack-quack
45 Frog croaking croac-croac ribbit
46 Snake hissing siff hiss/sss
47 Cat meowing miaou meow
48 Dog barking ouah ouah, ouaf ouaf, wouf woof, arf, bow wow, ruff
 wouf
49 Dog or wolf howling aoooouuuu... awoooooo..
50 Horse whinnying hiiii neigh
51 Horse trotting Pa-ta-clop clip clop
52 Rooster crowing cocorico cock a doodle doo
53 Monkey chatting Ouah ah ah hein oo-ooh a-aah
54 Owl hooting Ouh Ouh hoo hoo
55 Bee buzzing bzzz buzz, bzzz
56 Birds chirping cui cui, piou piou chirp chirp, tweet tweet
57 Chicken clucking cot cot cot, cot cot codet cluck cluck
58 Cow mooing meuh moo
59 Crow calling crôa crôa caw caw
60 Donkey braying hi han hee-haw
61 Sheep bleating bêêh baa