How to Say "Daughter in Law" in French

belle-fille

/bɛl.fij/

The English phrase 'daughter in law' is translated into French as belle-fille.

belle-fille refers to the wife of a person's child. Its masculine counterpart, the term for 'son-in-law', is gendre.

What does it mean word for word?

Literally, belle-fille translates to 'beautiful girl'.

Depending on the context, belle-fille can mean either 'daughter-in-law' or 'stepdaughter'.

To form the plural, both parts of the phrase take an 's', resulting in belles-filles.

/bɛl.fij/

The French kinship system uses the same belle prefix for both 'in-laws' and 'step-family', meaning a single word can describe a spouse's parent or a parent's new spouse.
In French, you use the word 'belle' to indicate a relationship through marriage, rather than to describe the woman's looks. A person's 'belle-fille' could be plain or unattractive, but the title remains the same.
The term belle-fille is linguistically asymmetrical when compared to the male counterpart. While a daughter-in-law is a belle-fille, a son-in-law is usually called a gendre instead of a 'beautiful son'.

Ma belle-fille est très sympathique.
My daughter-in-law is very nice.
Je cherche un cadeau pour ma belle-fille.
I am looking for a gift for my daughter-in-law.
Sa belle-fille habite à Lyon.
His daughter-in-law lives in Lyon.

Léa and Hugo are talking about a family gathering.

Léa

Est-ce que ta belle-fille vient ce soir ?
Is your daughter-in-law coming tonight?
Hugo

Oui, elle vient avec son mari.
Yes, she is coming with her husband.
Léa

C'est une excellente nouvelle !
That is excellent news!
Hugo

On va bien s'amuser.
We are going to have a lot of fun.

Sources

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