Many words that are always capitalized in English cannot be capitalized in French or are only sometimes capitalized, such as nationalities. Some words are always masculine or feminine regardless of their ending. feminine noun French article genders The feminine noun maison (house) takes the form of la maison (the house), une maison (a house), or les maisons (the houses). If you speak English, you're in luck because many country names in French and nationalities in French look or sound very similar to English. Now they are going to influence verbs, adjectives and other types of words, but they are the only one coming with a grammatical gender. Examples: les chiens (the dogs), les arbres (the trees), les mots (the words), etc. For the most part, nouns included in the following categories are masculine:\r\n
- \r\n \t
- \r\n
Names of trees: chne (oak tree), olivier (olive tree), pommier (apple tree)
\r\n \r\n \t - \r\n
Names of metals: or (gold), acier (steel), fer (iron)
\r\n \r\n \t - \r\n
Names of metric units: mtre (a meter), kilo (a kilo), centimtre (centimeter)
\r\n \r\n \t - \r\n
Names of colors: le rouge (red), le vert (green), le bleu (blue)
\r\n \r\n \t - \r\n
Names of languages: le chinois (chinese), lallemand (german), le franais (French)
\r\n \r\n \t - \r\n
Nouns of English origin: tennis (tennis), parking (parking lot), football (soccer)
\r\n \r\n
How to identify feminine French nouns
\r\nSome noun endings typically designate female gender and some common examples.\r\n| Noun Ending | \r\nExamples | \r\n
|---|---|
| -ade | \r\nfaade (facade), promenade\r\n(a walk), limonade (lemon\r\ndrink) | \r\n
| -ance | \r\nenfance (childhood), naissance\r\n(birth), assurance\r\n(insurance) | \r\n
| -e | \r\nide (idea), journe\r\n(day), mosque\r\n(mosque) | \r\n
| -ence | \r\ndiffrence (difference),\r\ninnocence (innocence), influence\r\n(influence) | \r\n
| -ette | \r\ncrevette (shrimp), chaussette\r\n(sock), baguette\r\n(baguette) | \r\n
| -ie | \r\ncomdie (comedy), industrie\r\n(industry), dmographie\r\n(demography) | \r\n
| -sion | \r\nprvision (forecast),\r\ncomprhension (understanding),\r\nrvision (revision) | \r\n
| -t | \r\nsocit (society),\r\npublicit (advertising),\r\ncharit (charity) | \r\n
| -ti | \r\namiti (friendship),\r\nmoiti (half), piti\r\n(pity) | \r\n
| -tion | \r\ninformation (information),\r\nducation (education), question\r\n(question) | \r\n
| -ure | \r\nvoiture (car), couverture\r\n(blanket), confiture\r\n(jelly/jam) | \r\n
- \r\n \t
- \r\n
Names of sciences and school subjects: For example, chimie (chemistry), histoire (history), and mdecine (medical sciences). Un grand garon : a tall boy. I didnt get far enough in my lessons to learn the articles and masculine and feminine. There are six country names ending in -e and which are masculine : le Mexique, le Mozambique, le Belize, le Cambodge, le Suriname, le Zimbabwe. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. We use it for plural nouns, whether theyre masculine or feminine. And if you pay attention, you might find some patterns there. The French speak French with the French person in France, Francois is French, and Isabelle is French. In actual fact, English is the odd man out when it comes to gender, as nouns in most languages are either masculine or feminine. Some words are either masculine or feminine regardless of their ending. So, is the word tea feminine or masculine in the French language? English has only two indefinite articles: a and an. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Before you start pulling out your hair, I will teach you a simple rule. Team, ThoughtCo. A robe is a loose-fitting outer garment. You can unsubscribe at any time. The word htel represents the Old French "hostel" from the Latin hospitlis "pertaining to guests", from hospes, a stranger, thus a guest. I appreciate your attention to the idea of learning to speak French. 1 translation entry available; English salad; German: Salat: Gender: m: Plural: Salate: In French, the word for tomato, tomate, is a feminine noun. And in the plural Elles is for feminine words or people / Ils is for masculine and mixed words or people. Vronique Mazet has a doctorate in French from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of two successful grammar books. Lets start with masculine nouns. Thats not the case in French. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to know whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Other job titles only have feminine forms. Is there a free way to lookup a phone number? Some aremasculine and some are feminine. Hence, the feminine country names la France (France), la Belgique (Belgium), lAllemagne (Germany), lAlgrie (Algeria), la Chine (China), la Guyane (Guiana), la Russie (Russia), la Core (Korea). She currently teaches French at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. Note that many French professions have only a masculine form. Fortunately, they're easy to deal with because languages are never capitalized. (amricain, amricaine), (mexicain, mexicaine), (cubain, cubaine), etc. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Names of businesses: boulangerie (bread shop), parfumerie (perfume shop), charcuterie (deli). What Are French Ordinal Numbers and Fractions. You can check out this article for more ideas. Well there are actually quite a few words you can use. 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