étoile de mer
/e.twal də mɛʁ/feminine
The English word starfish is translated into French as étoile de mer.
étoile de mer is used to refer to various types of echinoderms commonly known as starfish.
Meaning: various echinoderms (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase is composed of étoile (star), de (of) and mer (sea).
How does it change in a sentence?
When making the phrase plural, only the word étoile takes an s. The de mer part remains unchanged, resulting in étoiles de mer. The noun is feminine.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly add the definite article la between de and mer. The correct idiom is étoile de mer.
Did you know?
- The word mer for 'sea' is feminine in French, whereas it remains masculine in most other Romance languages. Linguists believe this happened because mer was influenced by the feminine word terre meaning 'land'.
- While étoile de mer refers to starfish, French uses the same word étoile to describe a star-shaped intersection of streets, such as the famous Place de l'Étoile in Paris.
Examples in context
- J'ai vu une étoile de mer magnifique sur la plageI saw a beautiful starfish on the beach
- Lors de ma dernière plongée, j'ai vu plusieurs étoiles de mer près du récif.During my last dive, I saw several starfish near the reef.
- Regarde, une étoile de mer ! Elle est énorme !Look, a starfish! It's huge!
- J'ai vu une étoile de mer.I saw a starfish.
- Regarde cette belle étoile de mer.Look at this beautiful starfish.
- L'étoile de mer est sur le sable.The starfish is on the sand.
Example conversation
Manon and Hugo are walking along a beach.
- ManonHugo, regarde cette étoile de mer !Hugo, look at this starfish!
- HugoElle est vraiment impressionnante.It is really impressive.
- ManonEst-ce qu'elle est vivante ?Is it alive?
- HugoOui, je pense qu'elle bouge un peu.Yes, I think it is moving a little.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “starfish” translations and entries étoile de mer, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries de, mer, étoile, CC BY-SA 4.0.
