Dictionary / Seal (the animal)
How to Say "Seal (the animal)" in French
Un phoque
/œ̃ fɔk/
Literally: A seal
Un
a
phoque
seal
Good to know
Completely neutral in French. It appears in children's books, at the zoo and on nature documentaries without anyone blinking.
Correct
Un phoque
What people say wrong
Le sceau
the seal as in a wax stamp or an official seal, a different word entirely
The mistake to avoid. This is one of the most-searched French vocabulary questions in English, and almost nobody asking it wants to talk about marine mammals, because the word sounds close to an English obscenity. In French it carries none of that. The word is ordinary and the confusion runs entirely in the other direction: the risk is not saying it in Paris, it is saying it in an English-speaking room and being misheard. Worth knowing before you order at an aquarium gift shop.
In context
On a vu des phoques sur la plage.
We saw seals on the beach.
Le phoque est un mammifère marin.
The seal is a marine mammal.
Il y a un bébé phoque au zoo.
There's a baby seal at the zoo.