The Gender of Nouns
English is a 'neutral' language. None of our nouns have a gender (though
sailors do tend to call their ships she). So going through school,
we never had to learn if something was masculine orfeminine;
it just was.
French is not like that. All nouns in french have a gender, either masculine
or feminine. And this has been the source of grief for french students
for years as there is no rhyme or reason as to how they determine it.
You can learn the gender of a noun by looking it up in the dicitionary,
or by looking at the article or adjectives that modify it. But the best
way is to learn the gender of the noun when you learn the noun (duh).
Now I know that this doesn't always happen. So, to make it a little less
painful for you (and to help you out if you draw a blank on a noun's gender
during an exam) here are some rough guidelines you can follow in
determining the gender of a noun. They are not set in concrete!
They are merely guidelines and there will be exceptions to them, but generally
you should be able to get by ok if you know these.
1. Natural Gender Nouns:
Nouns that refer to males are usually masculine and nouns that refer
to females are usuallylfeminine. For example:
Feminine Masculine
la femme woman l'homme man
la jeune fille girl le garçon boy
l'actrice actress l'acteur actor
l'étudiante student l'étudiant student
la cousine cousine le cousin cousin
la vache cow le taureau bull
la lionne lioness le lion lion
la chatte cat le chat cat
la chienne dog le chien dog
Nouns that refer to a group of people that have at least one male are masculine.
les grands-parants grandparants
les gens people
les jeunes gens young people
Nouns that refer to professions that were once limited only to men are
masculine.
le professeur professor, teacher
le médecin doctor
l'écrivain writer
le pilote pilote
a. Masculine Nouns:
Most of the nouns that end in the suffixes -ment, -eur,
-oir, -acle, -isme, -ose, and
-age are masculine.
le danseur dancer le chanteur singer
le commencement beginning le capitalisme capitalism
l'admirateur admirer le glucose glucose
le comptoir counter le jardinage gardening
le spectale show
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Exceptions:
Some feminine nouns end in -eur or -age because that
is part of the stem.
la faveur favor la page page
la douceur sweetness la cage cage
la saveur flavor
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Compound nouns that begin with a verb or a preposition are masculine
- even when the noun is feminine.
le gagne-pain livelihood le portemonnaie change purse
l'en-tête heading le portefeuille wallet
(of a lettre)
le passe-partout master key le tournevis screwdriver
Most of the words borrowed from other languages in which nouns have no
gender (English) are masculine.
le whiskey whiskey le jazz jazz
le sandwich sandwich
b. Feminine Nouns:
Most of the nouns that end in the suffixes -ion, -aison,
-té, -tude, -ale, -ole, -ure,
-ie, and -esse are feminine.
l'invitation invitation la casserole pan
la peinture painting la capitale capitall
la beauté beauty la bourgeoisie middle
class
la solitude solitude la jeunesse youth
la combinaison combination
Adding the endings -ée, -ette, elle, or
-ille to nouns of either gender makes them feminine.
l'an l'année year
le cigare la cigarette cigarette
la passe la passerelle gangplank
Most nouns that end in -ch, -che, -sse, and
-se are feminine.
la pelouse lawn la fiche index card/form
la fraise strawberry l'église church
la chose thing la quiche quiche/custard pie
la crêche cradle/nursery la classe class
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Exceptions:
Some nouns ending in -ce are masculine.
le vice vice
le négoce business/trade
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Nouns referring to the sciences and to most academic disciplines
are feminine.
la chemie chemistry la physique physics
l'histoire history la biologie biology
la médecine medecine la psychologie psychology
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Exceptions:
Nouns referring to languages are masculine.
le français French l'anglais English
l'allemand German
Remember! Do not capitalize the names of languages in French.
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Most names for machines and mechanical devices are feminine.
la machine machine la cuisinière stove
la voiture car la guillotine guillotine
l'auto automobile
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Exceptions:
The names of machines using masculine suffixes are masculine.
le séchoir dryer l'ordinateur computer
le moteur motor
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Homonyms:
Homonyms are nouns that have identical spellings and pronounciation so
you must look to the article (or context) to know which meaning to use.
le livre book la livre pound
le somme nap la somme sum
le tour turn/rotation la tour tower
le vase vase la vase slime
le mode method la mode fashion
le manche handle la manche sleeve