Naitonalities
countries
Countries in french are either masculine or feminine, and that decides how they are used in sentences, and how they are used with prepositions.
Here are the two main rules that lets you infer the gender of a country:
- Countries that end in -e are feminine, except for “Le mexique” (mexico).
- Countries that DO NOT end in -e are masculine
tip
When using countries in a sentence, you often use the definite article to refer to them.
nationalities
Since nationalities are just adjectives, they will end differently when describing masculine objects and feminine objects, and also end differently based on any irregular endings these have.
| English Nationality | Country | Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|---|---|
| english | L’angleterre | anglais | anglaise |
| american | Les états-unis | americain | americaine |
| french | francais | francaise | |
| australian | australien | australienne | |
| canadian | Le Canada | canadien | canadienne |
| chinese | La Chine | chinois | chinoise |
| indian | L’Inde | indien | indenne |
| japanese | Le Japon | japonais | japonaise |
| russian | La Russie | russe | russe |