Posted by Chester Morton / Tuesday, 7 February 2017 / No comments
Learning the gender of nouns in French
Gender is linked to
the noun word, rarely to the physical thing or the person. Always learn
the gender of a noun with its article: le livre (the book), la
fenêtre (the window).
Genders of nouns
starting with a vowel need to be memorized separately: l’âge (m.)
(age), l’hôtel (m.) (the hotel), l’horloge (f.)
(the clock).
Several
rules can help you guess if a French noun is masculine or feminine:
- Nouns that refer to males are usually masculine; nouns that refer to females are usually feminine: l’homme (m.) (the man); la femme (the woman)
- The ending of a noun can be a clue to its gender. Here are some commonmasculine and feminine endings. Be aware of cognate nouns, which are close to English in spelling and meaning.
Masculine Feminine
-eau le bureau,
le château -ence la différence,
l’existence
-isme le
tourisme, l’idéalisme -ie la tragédie, la compagnie
-ment le moment,
le département -ion la
nation, la fonction
-té l’université,
la diversité
-ude l’attitude,
la solitude
-ure la
littérature, l’ouverture
Watch out
for exceptions: l’eau (f.) (water), la peau (skin),
le silence (silence).
- Nouns adopted from other languages are usually masculine: le jogging, le tennis, le jazz, le basket-ball. Exception: la pizza.
- Some nouns referring to people indicate gender by their ending. The feminine form often ends in -e.
l’Allemand
the German (m.) l’Allemande
the German (f.)
l’Américain
the American (m.) l’Américaine
the American (f.)
l’ami
the friend (m.) l’amie
the friend (f.)
l’étudiant
the student (m.) l’étudiante
the student (f.)
le
Français the Frenchman la
Française the Frenchwoman
Note that
final d, n, s, and t are silent in the masculine
form, as in the
examples
above. When followed by -e in the feminine form, d, n, s,
and
t are pronounced.
- Some nouns that end in -e and the names of some professions have
only one singular form, used to
refer to both males and females. In this case, the article remains the same
whether the actual person is male or female.
l’auteur (m.)
(the author) la personne (the person)
l’écrivain (m.)
(the writer) le professeur (the teacher,
professor)
l’ingénieur
(m.) (the engineer) la sentinelle (the
guard, watchman)
le
médecin
(the physician) la victime (the victim)
Evolving
Style In contemporary Canadian French and among some other French
speakers, you may also see or read a feminine form for a few traditional
professions (la professeure, l’écrivaine, l’auteure).
For
learners, however, it’s best to continue using the masculine forms of these
nouns to refer to both males and females.
- For certain nouns referring to people, the gender of the individual is
sometimes indicated by
the article alone. Such nouns most often end in -e; the spelling of the
noun does not change when the gender changes.
le
journaliste/la journaliste the journalist
le
secrétaire/la secrétaire the secretary
le
touriste/la touriste the tourist
