![]() ![]() In French, the word for “car” (“voiture”) is feminine. The gender of the brand will actually be the gender of the noun that is implicit :Ī) I bought a Mercedes. = I bought a Mercedes (car). How will you translate the following examples ? Nouns made from adverbs, pronouns, verbs, etcĮxamples: le souper, le mal (= evil), le pourquoi, le commentĮxamples: le basketball, un tee-shirt, le whisky Bonus: What about the names of brands ? Note: listen to my French Your Way Podcast episode about the names of fruit and fruit trees (episode 30) Note: we’re talking about the nouns, not about the adjectives !Įxample: l’or (= gold), le fer (= iron), l’acier (= steel), l’argent (= silver), le cuivre (= copper)Įxamples : un pommier, un cerisier, un chêne (= oak tree) Names of virtues/qualities and shortcomingsĮxamples : la gentillesse, la beauté, la franchiseĮxceptions : l’orgueil, le courage (see why in Part 2) Are generally masculine:Įxamples : le Japon, le Canada, le BrésilĮxamples : le lundi, le mardi, le dimanche, un septembre pluvieux (= a rainy September), un été, un hiverĮxamples : le 14 février, un million, un huitième (= one eighth), un tiers (= a third), un quartĮxception #1: la moitié (= half) (see why in Part 2)Įxception #2 : numbers ending in « _aine » : une douzaine, la trentaine, la centaineĮxamples : le français, le chinois, le russe Names of fruits and vegetables ending in « _e »Įxamples: une pomme, une carotte, une salade, une courgette Names of countires, regions and continents ending in « _e »Įxamples : la France, l’Australie, la Provence, l’AfriqueĮxceptions : le Cambodge, le Mexique, le Mozambique Part 1: Predicting the Gender of French Nouns based on Categories/Groups of Words Are generally feminine: I’ve designed a free printable worksheet to test your knowledge about the French masculine vs feminine nouns! You can get it now and fill it before reading the article, just to fun and to see how you’ve been doing, or choose to fill it only after reading: Get Worksheet FYW 033 : How to Tell if a French Noun is Masculine or Feminine (Part 2).FYW 032 : How to Tell if a French Noun is Masculine or Feminine (Part 1).So you can also have the audio version of this article here: Note 2: I have dedicated two French Your Way Podcast episodes to the gender of French nouns. They contain exceptions, not all of them are listed here. Note 1: The following are only general rules to help you. The good news (because there’s one!) is that you can learn rules to help you guess the gender of a word! And therefore you’ll need to set good learning habits from the start by memorising the gender of French nouns as part as your vocabulary! Well, the bad news is that you’ll need to learn/memorise it. I hear you say: How to know whether a word is masculine or feminine? How the hell am I supposed to tell the gender of French nouns, to guess that the word” telephone” is masculine whereas the word “television” is feminine? New learners of French are often unsettled or scared when they find out –very early- that every noun had a gender: masculine or feminine. ![]()
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