In many French-speaking countries, French fries are commonly shortened to “frites.”
The word is the feminine plural form of the French adjective meaning “fried,” with the implied noun being pommes de terre, or potatoes. The fuller expressions include pommes frites, patates frites, and pommes de terre frites, but everyday speech often reduces the dish simply to frites.
This is not the same vocabulary used everywhere. In Britain and several Commonwealth countries, fries are generally called chips, while crisps means thin packaged potato snacks. In parts of the Netherlands, patat or friet is used, and Belgian Dutch commonly uses frieten. Those regional terms can make international menus confusing, especially because “chips” may refer to either fried potatoes or packaged snacks depending on the country.
French-speaking Belgium is especially associated with frites, sold at a friterie or fritkot and often paired with mayonnaise or other sauces. The name does not by itself settle whether the modern fry originated in France or Belgium; that historical question remains disputed.