Vocabulaire des objets de la chambre en français

How do you say “bedside table” in French?

French has two everyday words for “bedside table,” and they’re interchangeable: une table de chevet and une table de nuit. The first hides a small treasure — chevet is an old word for the head of a bed, from the same root as chef (“head”). So a table de chevet is literally the table at your bed’s head, which is why it sits exactly there.

The same chevet turns up in au chevet de quelqu’un, “at someone’s bedside,” used for keeping vigil over the sick. Pairing the two synonyms is handy: drop table de nuit and a French listener pictures the identical object. Nearby bedroom words from the clip worth banking: un oreiller (pillow), une couverture (blanket), un volet (shutter).