In this lesson, youll learn the answer to the question how can i tell if a noun is masculine or feminine. Nouns ending in age and ment are usually masculine, as are nouns ending with a consonant. Determining the gender of nouns in french, all nouns. Generally, the feminine is formed with e, the masculine or general plural in s and the feminine plural in es. In french, all nouns have a genderthey are either masculine or feminine. Thomas teaches you the gender of french nouns masculine and feminine in a fun and easy way. Speakers of these languages must take care to mark gender with definite articles and pronouns. The most common masculine definite article in singular form is le. The gender knowing if a word is masculine or feminine is not always logical. There is no way to accurately predict the gender of a word based on its spelling unless it has a special feminne or masculine only ending such as eux or euse, tion, etc examples.
You might remember that all french nouns are either masculine or feminine. In french, all nouns have a grammatical gender, that is, they are masculine or. Definite articles with singular masculine nouns in french. Masculine and feminine quiz todays french french etc. With words that describe things rather than people, we have to just know whether the word is masculine or feminine there are some tips we can use to decide whether a word is masculine or feminine, but with a lot of common words, theres no easy way to know other than looking in the dictionaryphrase book and remembering. A noun in french is considered either masculine or. The gender of some nouns makes sense hommeman is masculine, femme woman is feminine but others dont. Well show you how to recognize them, with plenty of common french nouns as examples. An s is added to most singular nouns to form their plural. You can complete the translation of masculine and feminine given by the englishfrench collins dictionary with other dictionaries such as.
Mar, 2018 so, when speaking french, do you have put the adjectives in the feminine and masculine. Focus on gender confronts the french gender problem and defines it in the most concise manner possible. In french we differentiate masculine and feminine nouns. Le is used before a masculine singular noun that starts. Is the word book in french masculine or feminine answers. After hours trying to figure out why feminisme feminism is masculine and masculinite masculinity is feminine, youve come to the most logical conclusion.
Every noun has a gender genre, either masculine or feminine. Mar 24, 2018 french vocabulary occupation and profession. These three patterns are much easier to learn than every single word gender out there. Il est generalement place apres le nom et saccorde avec le nom ex. Master french gender rules by following these simple guidelines. How to identify feminine and masculine in french 5 easy tips. All nouns in french have a gender, either masculine or feminine. French gender general rules le genre des noms regles generales is the word masculine or feminine. Here are the best tools to pick the right gender for any word. The bad news is, of course, that there are exceptions. The rule for gender and number of french adjectives. In french, the words for school supplies, such as paper, notebook, and book, are all nouns that follow the usual patterns for french nouns. A basic, singular noun refers to just one of something. How to conquer french gender rules in a nutshell fluentu.
In his booklong discussion of gender variation in french, roche 1997. Jun 06, 2010 what martin told you only works for spanish. All french adjectives agree in number singular or plural and gender masculine or feminine with the nouns they describe. The french word for notebook in french is a masculine noun. There are several masculine nouns that follow femininenoun patterns, and viceversa. Ask a french teacher how can i tell if a noun is masculine or. The french have feminine and masculine words for african. And some words are the tricksters of the bunch, taking on different meanings with different genders, like livre, which is a book when masculine but a pound when feminine. So, for example, never make lists with columns feminine and masculine and just write the french noun in them. In fact, in french, all words in a sentence must agree with each other. French possessive adjectives learn french free french lesson. A french teacher was explaining to her class that in french, unlike english, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
French nouns gender, plural, articles, demonstratives. Profession in french with masculine and feminine job. You ask yourself whether a noun is masculine or feminine every time you need a verb. In french, however, things are either masculine or feminine. In other words, there is nothing inherent about the word that makes it more masculine or more feminine. As things do not divide into sexes the way humans and animals do, there are no physical clues to help you with their gender in french. Wikipedia, lexilogos, larousse dictionary, le robert, oxford, grevisse. Static masculine, dynamic masculine, static feminine, dynamic feminine. How to know the gender of french nouns with 80% accuracy. What is book in french and is it masculine or feminine. The gender of some nouns makes sense homme man is masculine, femme woman is feminine but others dont. One of the first things a french learner discovers is that every french noun is either masculine or feminine.
Jan 28, 2019 in french, all nouns have a genderthey are either masculine or feminine. As such, it serves to confirm or deny previous notions about french gender. This was a text book used in one of my classes in a masters program in transpersonal psychology. If you want to learn more about french nouns we have lots of french noun video tutorials for you to study and learn. French isnt the only language whose nouns have genders, and masculine and feminine arent the only possible genders for nouns in certain other languages.
Except in some very precise cases, cities in french can be feminine more literary or masculine common spoken french. Nov 14, 2019 how to identify feminine and masculine nouns in french the ending rule is the one rule that can help you identify if a word is feminine or masculine. A french gender checker will make it all so much easier. Identify feminine and masculine in french part 2 the. But we do know patterns to make french noun gender easier.
Describes a noun or pronounfor example, a tall girl, an interesting book, a big house. Cracking open a book is one of the best ways to learn vocabulary and, in turn. Rule of thumb in french the endings of nouns can help us figure out their gender there are always exceptions feminine. Masculine or feminine gender march 9, 2018 june, 2016 by pascal dherve how to know if a word in french is masculine or feminine, not that easy, you need to learn them but we have some tips taking into account the end of these words. If a singular noun is masculine then we use either le, or l. French nouns gender of nouns masculine feminine francais. How to know if a word is masculine or feminine in french. Homme man, garcon boy, and serveur waiter are masculine, and femme woman, fille girl, and serveuse waitress are feminine.
In french language each noun is either masculine or feminine. You should always have a french article to show the gender of the noun, and learn the article and the noun together, as one piece of information. The upshot of this is that french possessive adjectives will change depending on the gender of the noun theyre describing. Choose from 500 different sets of feminine french nouns flashcards on quizlet. With reverso you can find the english translation, definition or synonym for masculine and feminine and thousands of other words. I fell in love with the book, emerging out of a jungian psychological perspective, which gives such a good feel of the energies associated with these four patterns. For the most part, you must memorize the gender, but there are some endings of words that will help you decide which gender a noun is. In english, thats about all there is to know about singular nouns. That is the question you often ask yourself as a french learner. French 1 paperback march 8, 20 by taylor r baldry author 5. Others are always feminine, like une voiture a car, une maison a house, and une ecole a school. A nouns gender determines what articles the equivalents of the and a can be used with it. If, for example, the noun or pronoun is singular, its verb and any adjectives describing it must also be singular.
Animals and inanimate objects, however, are another kettle poissoniere feminine of fish poisson masculine. It provides a permanent source of reference and perhaps the only comprehensive documentary evidence on the subject available today. In arabic, soup and the calendar year are feminine. Learn feminine french nouns with free interactive flashcards.
French grammar nouns grammaire francaise saber frances. If you want to say white houses you must say, des maisons blanches. One thing that will definitely help you improve your french is to. Learn to speak french and use the feminine and masculine forms of adjectives, pronouns and. In english, we call all things for example, table, car, book, apple it. Writing in french with masculine and feminine nouns dummies.
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