Masculine and Feminine French Nouns - Learn How to Tell Them Apart (original) (raw)
A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing, whether concrete (e.g., chair, dog) or abstract (idea, happiness). In French, all nouns have a gender—they are either masculine or feminine. The gender of some nouns makes sense (homme [man] is masculine, femme [woman] is feminine) but others don't: the words personne [person] and victime [victim] are always feminine, even when the person or victim is a man!
It is very important to learn a noun's gender along with the noun itself because articles, adjectives, some pronouns, and some verbs have to agree with nouns; that is, they change depending on the gender of the noun they modify.
The best way to learn the gender of French nouns is to make your vocabulary lists with the appropriate definite article or indefinite article. That is, rather than a list like this:
- livre - book
- chaise - chair
Make French vocabulary lists like this:
- un livre - book
- une chaise - chair
This will help you learn the gender with the noun. The gender is part of the noun and you will be much better off learning it now, as a beginner, than trying to go back after years of study and memorizing the genders of all the words you've already learned (we speak from experience). Also, there are quite a few French nouns with different meanings depending on whether they are masculine or feminine.
Gender of French Nouns
French nouns are always masculine or feminine, and you usually can't determine the gender just by looking at the word or thinking about what it means. While there are some tendencies in the gender of French nouns - see the table below - there are always exceptions. Please don't use these patterns as a way to avoid learning the genders of nouns - just learn each word as gender + noun and then you'll know them forever.
Nearly all French nouns have different forms for singular and plural. In addition, many nouns that refer to people and animals have both a masculine and a feminine form.
| Ending | is usually: | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| -age | masculine | Exceptions: | une cage, une image, une nage, une page, une plage, une rage |
| -eau | masculine | Exceptions: | l'eau, la peau |
| -ée | feminine | Exceptions: | un lycée, un musée |
| -ion | feminine | Exceptions: | un avion, un bastion, billion, un million, un lion, un scion |
| -té | feminine | Exceptions: | un comité, un invité |
In addition, most countries and names that end in e are feminine.
French Nouns With Irregular Feminine Forms
Most French nouns become feminine according to regular patterns, but there are a number of irregular nouns, based on the final letter(s) of the masculine singular noun.
Nouns that end in a vowel plus L, N, or T usually become feminine by doubling the consonant before adding E.
Ending: en > enne Noun: le gardien (guard)
Masculine singular le gardien
Feminine singular la gardienne
Masculine plural les gardiens
Feminine plural les gardiennes
Ending: el > elle Noun: le colonel (colonel)
Masculine singular le colonel
Feminine singular la colonelle
Masculine plural les colonels
Feminine plural les colonelles
Nouns that end in er need a grave accent:
Ending: er > ère Noun: le boulanger (baker)
Masculine singular le boulanger
Feminine singular la boulangère
Masculine plural les boulangers
Feminine plural les boulangères
The final letters eur have two possible irregular feminine endings:
Ending: eur > euse Noun: un danseur (dancer)
Masculine singular un danseur
Feminine singular une danseuse
Masculine plural des danseurs
Feminine plural des danseuses
Ending: eur > rice Noun: un acteur (actor)
Masculine singular un acteur
Feminine singular une actrice
Masculine plural des acteurs
Feminine plural des actrices
Notes
- These rules are similar for making adjectives feminine
- The rules for making nouns feminine apply only to people and some animals. They do not apply to objects, which have only one form: masculine or feminine.
- Compound nouns have their own gender rules.
French Nouns With Irregular Plurals
Most French nouns become plural according to regular patterns, but there are a number of irregular nouns, based on the final letter(s) of the singular noun.
The endings al and ail change to aux in the plural:
Noun: un cheval (horse)
Masculine singular un cheval
Masculine plural des chevaux
Noun: un travail (task, job)
Masculine singular un travail
Masculine plural des travaux
The endings au, eau, and eu take an X for plural:
Noun: un tuyau (pipe, tip)
Masculine singular un tuyau
Masculine plural des tuyaux
Noun: un château (castle)
Masculine singular un château
Masculine plural des châteaux
Noun: un feu (fire)
Masculine singular un feu
Masculine plural des feux