You're standing in a bakery in Lyon. You want to say, "I'd like a croissant," or maybe you're trying to describe someone who is "like" a brother to you. You reach into your mental filing cabinet and pull out the word your high school teacher hammered into your brain: comme.
It works. Sorta.
But then you overhear two teenagers chatting near the Seine, and they aren't saying comme at all. They’re peppered with words that sound nothing like what you learned. That’s because how to say like in French isn't a one-to-one translation. It’s a linguistic minefield of context, register, and social cues. If you use the wrong "like," you either sound like a 19th-century poet or a confused tourist.
French is precise. English is lazy. In English, "like" is a Swiss Army knife. We use it for comparisons, preferences, fillers, and approximations. French, however, demands you choose a specific tool for each job.
The Standard Comparison: When Comme Actually Works
Let’s start with the basics. If you are comparing two things—stating that one thing has the same qualities as another—comme is your best friend. It’s the direct equivalent of "as" or "like" in a comparative sense.
Il dort comme un bébé. (He sleeps like a baby.)
It’s simple. It’s clean. Most importantly, it’s grammatically safe. If you use comme to say someone is "like" a professional, you're on solid ground. But don't get too comfortable. French learners often over-rely on this word, using it in places where a native speaker would jump to a verb or a completely different preposition.
Take the phrase "people like you." You might be tempted to say les gens comme toi. That’s fine. It works. But if you want to sound more natural, you might hear a Frenchman say les gens de ton genre or ton genre de personnes. It’s a subtle shift, but it moves you from "classroom French" to "street French."
The Verb Trap: Aimer vs. Plaire
We can't talk about how to say like in French without hitting the big one: the verb "to like." This is where English speakers trip and fall flat.
In English, I like pizza, I like my mom, and I like this weather. In French, aimer is a heavy lifter, but it’s a bit of a romantic diva. If you tell a person Je t'aime, you aren't saying "I like you." You're saying "I love you." To say "I like you" to a friend without making it weird, you have to add an adverb: Je t'aime bien.
Paradoxically, adding a word makes the emotion weaker.
Then there’s plaire. This verb flips the script. Instead of "I like this," the structure is "This pleases me."
Ce film me plaît. (I like this movie.)
If you’re trying to express a preference for an object or an idea, plaire often sounds more sophisticated than a repetitive j'aime.
The Filler Word: The "Genre" Revolution
If you’ve spent any time in Paris recently, you’ve heard the word genre. It is the undisputed king of modern French filler words. It is the exact equivalent of the Valley Girl "like" that linguistics professors love to hate.
"He was, like, really angry."
Il était, genre, hyper énervé.
It’s ubiquitous. It’s everywhere. Young people use it to quote others, to hedge their bets, or just to take up space while their brain catches up to their mouth.
However, a word of caution. If you are in a job interview at a law firm in Bordeaux, do not use genre. It carries a heavy "youth" connotation. It’s informal. It’s slangy. It’s the linguistic equivalent of wearing sneakers to a funeral. You’ll hear it in movies, in rap lyrics, and on TikTok, but use it sparingly if you want to be taken seriously by anyone over the age of forty.
Approximations and "Kinda"
Sometimes when we say "like," we mean "approximately" or "about."
"I have, like, five euros."
In French, you wouldn't use comme here. You’d use environ or the very common suffix -aine. For example, une dizaine (about ten) or une vingtaine (about twenty).
If you want to say something is "sorta" or "kind of" like something else, the French go-to is un peu comme or une sorte de.
C’est une sorte de fromage. (It’s like a kind of cheese.)
Notice how the French structure forces you to categorize the object? You can't just throw a "like" in there and hope for the best. You have to commit to what the thing actually is.
The "I'd Like" Problem: Conditional Politeness
When you’re ordering food or asking for a favor, "I like" turns into "I would like." This is the realm of the conditional mood.
Je voudrais. Never, ever say Je veux (I want) to a waiter unless you want the slowest service of your life. It’s considered rude. It’s blunt. Je voudrais is the magic phrase. It’s technically the conditional of vouloir, but in practice, it’s the most common way to translate the polite "like" in a functional setting.
Alternatively, you can use J'aimerais.
J'aimerais partir tôt. (I would like to leave early.)
J'aimerais feels a bit more like a wish or a dream, whereas je voudrais is a concrete request. Use the latter for croissants and the former for world peace.
Specific Scenarios: Like This and Like That
What about "Do it like this"?
In this case, you’re looking for comme ça.
Fais-le comme ça. It’s one of the most useful phrases in the language. It covers "like that," "this way," and "in that manner." If you’re struggling to explain a process, just point and say comme ça. It saves lives.
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But what if you mean "such as"?
"I like fruits, like apples and oranges."
Here, comme works, but tel que is the gold standard for written French.
J'aime les fruits, tels que les pommes et les oranges.
It sounds professional. It sounds educated. It shows you know the difference between a casual comparison and a formal enumeration.
The Subtle Difference of "Pareil"
Sometimes "like" means "the same."
"My car is like yours."
Ma voiture est pareille que la tienne.
Pareil is a great word. It captures that sense of "identical" or "similar" that comme sometimes misses. You’ll often hear French people say C’est pareil when they mean "it’s the same thing" or "it doesn’t matter." It’s a versatile, conversational heavy-hitter that you should definitely add to your arsenal.
Why Meaning Matters More Than Translation
The mistake most English speakers make is trying to translate the word "like" instead of the intent behind it.
If you want to master how to say like in French, you have to stop thinking in English words and start thinking in French concepts.
- Are you comparing? Use comme.
- Are you feeling? Use aimer.
- Are you hesitating? Use genre.
- Are you being polite? Use je voudrais.
The French language doesn't have a single word for "like" because the French culture values nuance. They want to know if you love the pizza, if the pizza is similar to another pizza, or if you just want the pizza right now.
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Actionable Steps for Mastering "Like"
To truly integrate these into your speech, stop trying to memorize a list. Instead, try these three things:
- Watch French Interviews: Listen to how celebrities talk. You will hear genre and enfin used as fillers. This helps you identify the rhythm of the "filler like" without overusing it yourself.
- Practice the Conditional: Make je voudrais your default setting for any request. It’s the easiest way to sound instantly more fluent and respectful.
- Use "Comme Ça" Constantly: It’s the ultimate shortcut. Whether you're describing a movement, a style, or an event, comme ça is the bridge that gets you through the sentence when you're stuck.
The reality is that you will probably mess it up a few times. You'll say comme when you should have said genre, or you'll tell a stranger je t'aime when you meant you liked their shoes. It happens. The French are generally forgiving of learners, especially if you're making an effort to move beyond the textbook.
Start by replacing one comme a day with a more specific word. If you’re describing a person, try tel que. If you’re ordering coffee, use je voudrais. Slowly, the English "like" will fade from your mental translation process, and you'll start reaching for the precise French tool instinctively. That's when you know you're actually speaking the language, rather than just translating it.
Focus on the context of your sentence. Ask yourself: "What am I actually trying to convey?" Once you answer that, the right French word will usually present itself.
To move forward, spend the next week focusing exclusively on plaire instead of aimer for objects. It’s a small mental shift that yields massive results in how "French" you sound to native ears. Record yourself speaking for sixty seconds about things you enjoy, then listen back to see how many times you used "like" as a crutch. Replace those crutches with the specific terms outlined above.