Alysa Salzberg is an American writer, worrier, teacher, and cookie enthusiast who has lived in Paris, France, for more than a decade. Learn more about them in this guide for students aged 11 to 14 from BBC Bitesize. Why do some languages have gendered nouns, while others don’t? Subscribe to my twice-weekly newsletter. So, yes, this does all mean that French noun genders are completely arbitrary in many cases. And remember the French rule of masculine words always having dominance over feminine ones. She has taught English and French for more than ten years, most notably as an assistante de langue vivante for L'Education Nationale. Nouns with these endings were found to be of the same gender in more than 90% of cases. Common French Words Beginning With O, … In French, you have a masculine “the” (le) and a feminine “the” (la). Masculine plural: tristes Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window), Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window). The previous list has the advantage of being exhaustive, but as French Together reader Amosnliz notes in the comment section, you can learn with a simplified, shorter list. This being said, there are some feminists and activists who think that feminizing a profession is sexist unto itself and that all professions in French should simply be a single word, not two separate, male and female versions. Another bit of good news: As with les, the plural form of “a” in French, des, stays the same whether you’re using it with masculine or feminine nouns. Makes sense? Masculine singular: content Please check your spelling! Feminine singular: bonne Now you know how to identify the gender of French nouns. This may have had practical, as well as religious, purposes. Nous sommes allé(e)s Other than these changes, when it comes to gender in the French language, not much has happened in terms of everyday vocabulary and grammar. Good. Word not found? Note: The words are very randomly picked from various themes and different levels. Associating each noun with such a vivid image helps you remember its gender more easily. You may also want to check if it belongs on the list of typically masculine or feminine word endings. Adverbs don’t have a gender. You’ll hear/see the gender in front of each word in all of the FRENCH ETC. Close search. At the cafeteria, Daniel chose an apple, a bowl of soup, and a sandwich. Let’s explore why genders exist in the French language, why they’re important, and how you can finally be sure of which gender to use a vast majority of the time. Why organizing nouns into general groups seemed necessary, and why certain nouns that would seem inherently masculine or feminine fall into the completely opposite category, is still uncertain. This is also true for other compound tenses. Finally, while you say “some”, as in “a portion/piece of”, you need to make the distinction between du (masculine) and de la (feminine) in French. If none of these other strategies speak to you, here’s another that’s often recommended:  Instead of simply learning each word and its gender by heart, it can be smart to associate each gender with an action in your mind. However, many common adjectives precede the noun. Feminine singular: triste Good news – there’s a plural “the” ( les ), but it stays the same for groups/things of either gender. Punctuation; Capital letters; Hyphens: How the use of a hyphen changes the meaning of an word, use of hyphen within interrogative clauses and numerals… Accents and cedillas: (é - acute accent, è -grave accent, ê - circumflex accent, ç) Plural (general rules and particular cases for the plural of nouns and adjectives, plural of compound words) Verbs don’t have a gender. Il/elle est allé(e) When it comes to the passé composé, for example, when you conjugate a verb with the auxiliary être, the past participle must agree with the subject’s gender (and number). All rights reserved. Are you confident enough with your knowledge of French words to take this French vocabulary quiz? Sometimes, changing the gender of a noun can change the meaning of a word entirely! They’re all on his tray. Every year, the Social Security Administration releases a list of the most popular baby names in the country based on current registrations.  * Fête des mères Although French people don’t use articles every single time they say a word, memorizing words along with an article is a very easy way to ingrain in your memory if a word is masculine and feminine. French Nouns With Two Genders. For instance, in Canadian French, une médecin and une docteure are used, and doctoresse is used in Swiss and Belgian French. For example, traditionally, jobs like teachers and writers were only used with masculine nouns. Read 13 common French mistakes that’ll make you feel awkward before you use this adjective. But it can be a very helpful way to quickly guess the gender of words that do fall into these categories, or if you’re working with these categories (say, talking about the colors of a painting), you’ll know you can keep the gender the same. Gender with regards to words is not something we spend a lot of time thinking about in English, but in French vocabulary every single noun will have either a masculine gender or a feminine gender. Write in flawless French, with the interactive spell checker. Voilà – no confusion! That is the question you often ask yourself as a French learner. When a French noun describes a live being, its gender (masculine or feminine) often reflects the gender of the being in question. This core dataset has then been cross-referenced against several other online sources to ensure gender accuracy. This article includes a great list of French word gender games you can play on your own or with a group. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Regardless of your gender, if you’re someone who wants equality for everyone (a.k.a. In French, all nouns have a gender. Macaron addict. Write the infinitive or a conjugated form and the French Conjugator will provide you a list of all the verb tenses and persons: future, participle, present, subjunctive, auxiliary verb. Want more practice, or different ways to practice? An Introduction to French Articles. Le métal and le minéral are masculine, as are all metals: 1. acier – steel 2. or – gold 3. plomb – leadand most minerals: 1. le gypse – Remember that if a word in a particular category has another meaning, the gender of that second meaning probably won’t be the same (we’ll talk more about this a little later on). You can see some signs of social change in in the French language itself. There are exceptions, but if you know these patterns, you’ll know how most adjectives change based on the gender of the noun they modify. If they have an “e” at the end already, the letter stays for masculine nouns as well as feminine ones. The gender is shown with the article: le, la, un or une. Title: French Gender Rules Author: LoveToKnow Subject: French Gender Rules Keywords: French Gender Rules Created Date: 12/22/2014 6:40:24 AM One easy way to keep up what you’ve learned about genders in French is to choose a word, guess if it’s masculine or feminine, then look it up online or in a print dictionary to check if you’re right. The gender of words in French – as well as their grammatical and social implications – can be complicated. You can vent your frustration with a scream if you’d like, or maybe a French swear word. The passé composé tense is the most striking example of the influence of genders and number on conjugation, although any verb tense that uses an auxiliary verb can be influenced by the gender and number of the subject. This site is a quick way to check whether a job advert has the kind of subtle linguistic gender-coding that has this discouraging effect. Written French can be a vast horror, and if you happen to need a lot of guidance with your writing, using any automatic grammar checker can be like putting a Band-Aid over a severed limb. Notice that despite the first two items being feminine, because un sandwich is masculine, the entire group is referred to with ils , the masculine plural pronoun. I got used to associating the nouns in the song with the words around them that signified their gender. You get the idea. How to know the gender of French nouns with 80% accuracy, Other ways to learn and remember the gender of French words, How to learn and practice French noun gender. French adjectives change based on the gender and number of the noun they modify, 13 common French mistakes that’ll make you feel awkward, -an, -and, -ant, -ent, -in, -int, -om, -ond, -ont, -on (but not after s/c¸), -air, -er, -erf, -ert, -ar, -arc, -ars, -art, -our, -ours, -or, -ord, -ors, -ort, -ir, -oir, -eur, -aie, -oue, -eue, -ion, -te, – ée, -ie, -ue, -asse, -ace, -esse, -ece, -aisse, -isse/-ice, -ousse, -ance, -anse, -ence, -once, -enne, -onne, -une, -ine, -aine, -eine, -erne, -ande, -ende, -onde, -ade, -ude, -arde, -orde, -euse, -ouse, -ase, -aise, -ese, -oise, -ise, -yse, -ose, -use, -ache, -iche, -eche, -oche, -uche, -ouche, -anche, -ette, -ete, – ête, -atte, -otte, -oute, -orte, -ante, -ente, -inte, -onte. Of course, not everything can be neatly put into a category that has all or mostly masculine or feminine nouns, but there are a decent amount of categories out there, and maybe, as you learn French, you’ll notice patterns and come up with categories that make sense and work for you, in addition to the established ones. What about you? As a multi-cultural country with a population from across the globe, this gives our data a strong international dimension.. After hours trying to figure out why féminisme (feminism) is masculine and masculinité (masculinity) is feminine, you’ve come to the most logical conclusion: the gender of French nouns was randomly chosen by a bunch of sadistic  linguists. This is the site where you can translate words and idioms from English to German and vice versa. For example, the word voile in French can either mean a sail or a veil. So, une voile is a sail and un voile is a veil. But nowadays, you can choose  to make them feminine, like so: une professeur/une prof (a (female) teacher); une écrivain (or une écrivaine, especially in Canadian French) (a female writer).