coffre (de voiture)
masculine
The French term for the trunk (luggage storage compartment) of a sedan or saloon style car is coffre (de voiture). Wiktionary also lists valise and malle.
Meaning: luggage storage compartment of a sedan/saloon style car (noun)
Ways to say it
| French | IPA | Note |
|---|---|---|
| coffre (de voiture) | masculine | |
| valise | /va.liz/ | feminine |
| malle | /mal/ | feminine |
Which one should you use?
Use coffre (de voiture) specifically when referring to the storage compartment of a vehicle. Do not use valise to mean a car's trunk. valise refers to the portable piece of luggage itself.
How does it change in a sentence?
coffre (de voiture) is a masculine noun and requires masculine articles like le or un. malle is a feminine noun and requires feminine articles like la or une.
What mistakes should you avoid?
English speakers often mistakenly use valise to mean a car's trunk because of the semantic overlap with 'luggage', but in French, valise is the object being carried, not the compartment in the car.
Did you know?
- While coffre is used for cars, the word coffre also refers to the human chest or ribcage in medical and anatomical contexts.
- In French, the word coffre is used to describe the deep, resonant voice of a singer, as if their chest were a large sounding box.
- The word coffre is actually a linguistic descendant of the Greek word for a 'basket'.
Examples in context
- J'ai mis ma valise dans le coffre.I put my suitcase in the trunk.This sentence shows how to use valise as the object being placed into the car's compartment.Tatoeba #7550460 by Aiji, translation #253945 by CK
- Monte à l'étage et ramène ma malle.Go upstairs and bring down my trunk.This sentence uses malle to refer to a large traveling chest.Tatoeba #10774257 by Micsmithel, translation #72895 by CK
- Cette malle contient de vieux vêtements.This trunk contains old clothes.This sentence demonstrates the use of malle for a storage chest containing items.Tatoeba #10755330 by lbdx, translation #9139978 by sundown
- Un agent de police a ouvert le coffre de la voiture et y a découvert plusieurs sacs suspects.A police officer opened the trunk of the car and found several suspicious bags inside.
- Elle a soigneusement rangé ses vêtements dans la malle avant de prendre le train.She neatly packed her clothes in the trunk before boarding the train.
- J'ai rangé les courses dans le coffre avant de la voiture pour qu'elles soient facilement accessibles.I put the groceries in the front trunk of the car so they would be easily accessible.
- Range tes skis dans la valise de la voiture, il n'y a plus de place à l'intérieur.Put your skis in the trunk of the car, there's no more space inside.
- 3 more sentences on Tatoeba
Sources
- Wiktionary, “trunk” translations and entries valise, malle, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries coffre, malle, valise, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
