Frenchvita

Nouns

What gender is a noun?

We have already seen in the general grammar section the importance of gender in the French language. It is essential to understand the concept of gender and realise that it has nothing to do with male or female

Gender is about characteristics of a noun and in this context has nothing to do with gender and sex. There is no definite rule about the gender of a word although with some type of words there are clues about feminine or masculine gender.

Note that in French we only have two genders; masculine and feminine. This means that nouns referring to non-living objects will be one of either gender. “It”, the neutral gender in English is the masculine “il” in French.For example:

• Le chien boit et il mange aussi dans le jardin. – The dog drinks and it also eats in the garden.

Masculine or feminine?

You will be able to find the gender of a noun in some obvious cases when you deal with male and female beings. For example, Un homme, une femme.

It is unlikely that the word “man” would be feminine and “femme” masculine. However if in doubt look in the dictionary and always learn a new noun with the indefinite article (un/une).

Why this article? Simply because if you use the definite article le or la you won’t know which gender the new noun is if it starts with a vowel or a silent “h”:

• Arbre: tree - l’arbre - the tree - un arbre - a tree.
• Habitude: habit –l’habitude – the habit - une habitude – a habit

The “E” is very often the symbol of the feminine when added to a noun:

• Un adolescent - une adolescente
• Un Anglais – une Anglaise (English woman)
• Un filleul – une filleule (god-daughter)
• Un ami – une amie (female friend)

Some of the nouns ending in –e can be used as both gender when they describe a person :

• Un comptable - une comptable (accountant)
• Une athlète - une athlète (athlete)
• Le dentiste - la dentiste
• Le ministre - la ministre

However some of the nouns for profession are only masculine:

• le médecin (and not la médecine which means the science of medicine)

Some words ending in –E in the masculine have the ending –ESSE in the feminine form:

• Un diable - une diablesse (a female devil)
• Un hôte - une hôtesse (hostess)
• Un Suisse - une Suissesse (a Swiss woman)

Nouns ending with –ER in the masculine have the ending –ÈRE in the feminine form:

• Un banquier - une banquière (a banker)
• Un conseiller - une conseillère (an adviser)
• Un prisonnier - une prisonnière (a prisoner)

As you will notice many of these nouns are masculine nouns for profession with an extra “-e” at the end for their feminine equivalent.

• Un boucher - une bouchère (butcher). Note the extra accent of the feminine word.
• Un patissier - une patissière (pastry cook or worker in a patisserie).

Nouns ending with –EN in the masculine have the ending–ENNE in the feminine form:

• Un Bohémien - une Bohémienne (don’t forget the accent which is obviously not there in English)
• Un chien - une chienne (female dog, bitch)
• Un informaticien - une informaticienne

Masculine nouns ending in –AN/ON : some have the feminine ending –ANNE/-ONNE or –ANE/-ONE:

• -ANNE/-ONNE
• Un paysan - une paysanne (peasant/country woman)
• Un champion - une championne
• Un lion - une lionne (female lion)

• -ANE/-ONE
• Un gitan - une gitane (gypsie)
• Un mormon - une mormone

Masculine nouns ending in –EAU have the feminine ending –ELLE

• Un agneau - une agnelle (lamb)
• Un jumeau - une jumelle (female twin)

Masculine nouns ending in –TEUR have the feminine ending –TRICE

• Un créateur - une créatrice (female creator)
• Un inventeur - une inventrice (female inventor)
• Un traducteur - une traductrice (translator)

Masculine nouns ending in –F thave the feminine ending –VE

• Un juif - une juive (jew)
• Un veuf - une veuve (widow)

As you will see in the adjective section these changes of ending according to the gender of the word will apply to adjectives as well. For example: neuf (masculine) neuve (feminine) (means new).

Note that all there are always exceptions to the rule so you may have to learn more than a word but also its gender and when applicable its masculine and feminine forms.

Revision

Masculine word	Feminine equivalent
Adolescent	Adolescent + E
Dentiste	Dentiste
Diable	Diable –SSE
BanquiER	Banqui + ÈRE
ChiEN	ChiEN+NE
PaysAN/gitAN	PaysAN+ NE/GitAN + E
JumEAU	JumELLE
TraductEUR	TraductRICE
JuiF	JuiVE

Gender according to endings

Feminine

When you come across a word which ends with:

• -ANCE/-ENCE
• E.G.- la balance (weight machine), la patience!

• –EUR
• E.G. - la peur (fear)

• -IE
• E.G. - la leucémie (leukaemia)

• -IQUE
• E.G. - la panique (panick)

• –ITÉ
• E.G. - la sérénité (serenity)

• –TION/-SION
• E.G. - une information, La décision (decision!). Exception to the rule is bastion which is masculine.

• -Double consonant with –E ending
• E.G. - La fille (girl/daughter)

Masculine

In general a noun with such endings should be masculine:

• -ISME - le romantisme (romanticism)
• -MENT - le médicament (medication)
• -OIR - le savoir (knowledge) comes from the verb 'savoir'

Country gender

Most of the nouns of countries have a –E ending and are feminine:

• L’Angleterre
• L’Autriche
• La France

With the exception of le Mexique and le Zaïre. (Mexico, Zaire)

If the country does not end with an –E then its gender is masculine:

• Le Brésil
• Le Canada
• Le Luxembourg

Exercise: Add the right indefinite article

Plural ending

Whatever gender a noun is, the sign of plural in French is an –S ending.

• Un enfant/des enfants
• Une femme/des femmes
• Un homme/des hommes
• Un object/des objects.

However there are some exceptions, how unusual ?!

Words ending in –AL/AIL generally take -AUX in the plural:

• Le canal - les canaux (Channel/canal)
• Le vitrail -les vitraux (Stained glass)

And there are some execeptions to the exceptions!: le bal, bals, le festival, festivals

The words ending in -OU take an –S except the following ones which take -X in the plural

• Le bijou jewel
• Le caillou stone
• Le chou cabbage
• Le genou knee
• Le hibou owl
• Le joujou toy (informal word used with children)
• Le pou lice

Compound nouns

Check in the dictionary! However, if the compound is made of a verb and a noun, it remains the same or the noun takes an -S:

• Le porte-avion/les porte-avion(s) (plane carrier(s))

If the compound is made of two nouns then both take the plural form :

• Le chou-fleur/les choux-fleurs (cauliflower(s))

The next section takes a look at Adjectives