Insects are everywhere. There are insects some of us love or that we don’t mind, like butterflies or dragonflies, and there are insects some of us hate or fear, like mosquitoes or cockroaches. 

Yet whether we like them or not, we need them since they are essential to recycle and maintain healthy soil, control pests and best of all, pollinate. Insects are also an essential source of food for many animals like frogs, bats, fish, reptiles, birds etc.

Here is a list of common insects we can find in Europe and other parts of the world. Technically-speaking, a spider is not an insect, but I took the liberty to include it in this list because spiders are so often thought of as insects. 

You will find the article “un” for masculine or “une” for feminine in front of the French names so you can learn the correct gender together with the word. 

Now that you know the names of these 20 common insects, let’s learn what other words you can use in informal, everyday language to refer to them. 

In English, you can also refer to insects as little creatures or just as creatures (critters in American English), bugs or creepy-crawlies (the singular form is creepy-crawly)

The word creepy-crawly is built on the adjective creepy, which means scary and the verb to crawl, to illustrate how insects run with their body close to the ground.

In French, you can say un insecte of course, you can also say une bestiole, une petite bête, or if you really don’t like them and think of them as being unhealthy or repulsive or dirty, you can say une sale bête. 

Personally, I love butterflies, bees and ladybirds but I hate wasps and praying mantises (or praying mantes, both plural forms are correct!).
How about you? Which insects from this list do you like and which ones are you most frightened of?

Is there another insect you would like to add to this list? Tell us in the comments below!

If you have a garden, you will inevitably find insects there! You can also learn more vocabulary about your garden here.

There you are! You now know what to call insects in English and in French and say their names in both languages. Congratulations! 🙂