法国 (Fǎguó) is the Chinese name for the European country France. The character 法 (Fǎ) is a phonetic approximation of the first syllable of 'France', while 国 (guó) means 'country' or 'nation'—a common suffix in Chinese names for countries, such as 美国 (Měiguó, United States) or 英国 (Yīngguó, United Kingdom). Together, 法国 literally reads as 'France-country', following the standard Chinese pattern of [phonetic transliteration] + 国.

This term is used exclusively as a proper noun to refer to the nation, its people, culture, government, or geography. It appears frequently in news, travel contexts, education, and discussions about international relations, cuisine, art, or history. Unlike English, Chinese does not use articles ('the') before country names, so 法国 stands alone without modifiers unless specifying a particular aspect (e.g., 法国菜, 'French cuisine').