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2 - Gender of nouns

Nouns basics​

There are only feminine and masculine nouns in french, and no neutral, meaning every noun has a gender.

Masculine nouns have these articles to refer to them:

  • le: equivalent of “the”
  • un: equivalent of “a”

Meanwhile, feminine nouns have these articles to refer to them:

  • la: equivalent of “the”
  • une: equivalent of “a”

Common masculine nouns​

Here are some patterns that generally hold true for masculine nouns, where the following categories have all masculine nouns

  • Days of the week, months, and seasons: le lundi (Monday), janvier (January), l'été (summer).
  • Languages: le français (French), l'anglais (English).
  • metric units: un kilometre, un litre, un gramme
  • words borrowed from english: un email, un week-end

masculine noun endings

The following endings typically signal masculine nouns, but there are exceptions.

  • Nouns ending in -age, -ment, -eau: le fromage (cheese), le gouvernement (government), le bateau (boat). Note that there are exceptions.
  • Nouns ending in -acle: un obstacle, un miracle
  • Nouns ending in -al: un cheval
  • Nouns ending in -eu: un cheveu, un neveu
  • Nouns ending in -et: un tabouret
  • Nouns ending in -ier: un pommier, un papier
  • Nouns ending in -in: un vin, un voisin
  • Nouns ending in -isme: un organisme
  • Nouns ending in -oir: un rasoir
  • Nouns ending in -ou: un trou, un clou, un hibou
  • nouns ending in -on: un garcon, un avion

common feminine nouns​

These are the common feminine ending nouns, but there are exceptions.

  • Nouns ending in -e (silent e): la table (table), la chaise (chair), la voiture (car).
    • -ade endings: une salade, une pommade
    • -ale endings: une rivale, une finale
    • -ance endings: une chance, une balance
    • -ence endings: une exigence, une agence
    • -ance endings: une chance, une balance
    • -ette endings: une vedette, une succette, une vignette
    • -ie endings: une galaxie, une colonie
      • These words have equal english cognates of words that end in -y, and to convert them to french, you end them in -ie instead, like galaxy → galaxie
    • -ie endings: une brique, une manique, une crique
      • These words have equal english cognates of words that have a “ick” or “eek” ending sound like brick → brique or creek → crique
    • -oire endings: une victoire, une poire, une foire
    • -ure endings: une aventure, une rayure, une voiture
  • Nouns ending in -sion,
  • Nouns ending in -tion,
  • Nouns ending in -té: la probabilité

gender-specific people objects​

For gender specific objects like waiter and waitress, or a male professor vs female professor, it follows the exact same rule in spanish where you add a different ending for the female version. In spanish, you would say professora instead of professor.

changing​

In french, for any female version of a noun, you add an -e to the end, like so:

  • Un apprenti, Une apprentie
  • Un ami, Une amie
  • un avocat, une avocate,
  • un etudiant, une etudiante
  • un voisin, une voisine

irregulars​

You can follow these irregular ending rules for gender-specific people object nouns and their femal counterparts

  • ending in -ger: Add an e and an accent
    • Example - un boulanger, une boulangere
  • ending in -eur: Change to -euse for female version.
    • un chanteur, une chanteuse
  • ending in -ien: Change to -ienne for female version.
    • un pharmacien, une pharmacienne
    • un diététicien, une diététicienne
  • ending in -on: Change to -onne for female version.
    • un patron, une patronne
    • un baron, une baronne
  • ending in -f: Change to -v for female version.
    • un veuf, une veuve
    • un baron, une baronne
  • ending in -teur: Change to -trice for female version, which is essentially almost one to one for spanish.
    • un acteur, une actrice
    • un explorateur, une exploratrice

non-changing​

Sometimes, the above rule can be violated and you can have gender-specific objects that end the same, but the article is different depending on the gender of the person object

  • Un/Une architect
  • Un/Une enfant

Practice Exercises​

Test your knowledge of noun gender with these exercises: