Feminine and masculine gender in French. Gender of nouns in French

In French nouns (these are those parts of speech that answer the question: who? what?) are masculine and feminine. Moreover, two forms are often found - male and female. Basically the feminine gender is formed by adding - e to masculine nouns. In this case, changes occur in pronunciation: -n becomes normal (not nasal), and doubles when written; silent sounds begin to sound, and deaf sounds become voiced. Oh, these women, or rather nouns! They always change everything, even in France!

For example,

un ami - une amie(friend - girlfriend)

un étranger - une étrangère(foreigner - foreigner)

un paysan - un paysanne(peasant - peasant woman)

un cousin - un cousine(cousin - cousin)

un chat - un chatte(cat Kitty)

un sot - une sotte(stupid - “stupid” or “stupid”. It’s a pity that these words do not exist in Russian)

un Américain — une Américaine(American - American)

un veuf - une veuve(widower - widow)

The main changes in gender of nouns are depicted in the table below. The same rule can be applied to adjectives (what? what?)

There are also cases when the noun does not have a specific gender. In this case, the article will help identify the gender, possessive pronoun or adjective.

For example,

un secretaire - un secretaire(secretary - secretary)

un socialiste - un socialiste(socialist - socialist)

un élève - une élève(student - student)

In French, there are names of professions that only have masculine. And women who have chosen a male profession have to speak and write about themselves only in the masculine gender. Here are some of them:

un amateur- amateur, amateur

un architecte- architect

un aviateur- aviator, pilot

un chef- boss, chief, leader

un compositeur- composer

un defenseur- defender, lawyer

un ecrivain- writer

un historien- historian

un ingenieur- engineer

un juge- judge

un medecin- doctor, doctor, medic

un professeur- teacher

un sauveur- savior

un sculpteur- sculptor, sculptor

But as a result of the global emancipation of women, a compromise had to be found. That's why the French slightly changed their grammar and decided to add the word "woman" to some of their professions:

une femme medecin- female doctor (colloquially doctor, doctor)

une femme juge- female judge

une femme ingenieur- female engineer (colloquially engineer)

Suffixes are also used to transform a masculine noun into a feminine one. Suffix -eur masculine becomes suffix -euse female:

un voyageur - une voyageuse(traveler, passenger - traveler, passenger)

un acheteur - un acheteuse(buyer - buyer)

un nageur - un nageur(swimmer - female swimmer)

-teur male in -trice female:

un acteur - une actrice(actor - actress)

un directeur - une directrice(director - headmistress)

But, as usual, there is also exceptions:

un empereur - une impératrice(emperor - empress)

And some nouns with -e in the masculine gender they form the feminine gender by adding - essay:

un comte - une comtesse(count - countess)

un hôte - un hôtesse(guest - guest)

un maître - une maîtresse(teacher - teacher or master - hostess)

un negre - une negresse(negro - black woman)

un prince - une princess(prince - princess)

un poete - une poetesse(poet - poetess)

un Suisse - une Suisse(Swiss - Swiss)

un tigre - un tigresse(tiger - tigress)

un traître - une traîtresse(traitor - traitor)

And there are also nouns that change their meaning depending on gender, i.e. a sentence can completely change its meaning:

un aide (helper) - une aide (help)

un guide (guide, guide) - une guide (rein)

un manche (handle)) - une manche (sleeve)

un radio (radio operator) - une radio (radio)

Therefore, if you have a noun that has a gender that is not typical for it, it is better not to be lazy, but to look in the dictionary to be sure of the correctness of its translation or spelling.

And lastly, in French there are suffixes that are characteristic only of a certain gender (feminine or masculine). And there are also those that cannot be attributed to one or the other.

And finally, all seasons, months, days of the week, and cardinal directions have masculine gender. And the female includes parts of the world and most rivers.

Try to remember these basic rules as you go. And our wonderful people will successfully help you with this.

The general rule is that the feminine gender of adjectives in French is formed by adding an "e" to the masculine form: un cahier bleu - une cravate bleue.

If the original form of the masculine adjective ends in “e”, no change occurs: un livre utile - une chose utile.

To form the feminine form, French adjectives can double the final consonant of the masculine form. The following cases are distinguished:

1. doubling “l” in adjectives ending in -el, -eil: un homme cruel - une loi cruelle, un sentiment pareil - une faiblesse pareille

The same thing happens in the words nul and gentil: une copie nulle, une manière gentille

2. doubling “n” in adjectives ending with -en, -on: une route aérienne, une fille bretonne

All other adjectives ending in “n” (-an, -in, -ain, -ein, -un), except for “paysan,” do NOT double the final vowel: la langue persane, une pièce voisine, une voix hautaine, une collection pleine, une chambre commune

But: la communauté paysanne

3. doubling “t” in adjectives ending with -et: une robe coquette

Attention: the final consonant “t” in feminine DO NOT double:

A. all other adjectives ending in (-ot, -at): une réponse idiote, une situation délicate

b. the following exceptions:

complet - complete

secret - secret

inquiet - inquiete

desuet - desuete

discret - discrete

concret - concrete

replete - replete

incomplete - incomplete

Many adjectives, when forming the feminine gender, in addition to adding “e”, simultaneously undergo the replacement of the final vowel form of the masculine gender:

a. f - v: naïf - naïve, bref - breve

b. x - s: adjectives ending in -eux and the adjective “jaloux”: heureux - heureuse, jaloux - jalouse

x - ss: faux - fausse, roux - rousse

x - c: doux - douce

With. s - c: tiers - tierce

s - ch: frais - fraîche

d. c - ch: blanc - blanche, sec - sèche

c - qu: franc - franque, public - publique, caduc - caduque, ammoniac - ammoniaque, turc - turque

Attention: grec - grecque

d. n - gn: bénin - bénigne, malin - maligne

The feminine gender of adjectives in French can be formed independently of any rule:

favori - favorite

rigolo - rigolote

esquimau - esquimaude

andalou - andalouse

Adjectives ending in -er, -ier have a spelling feature in the feminine gender: they acquire the so-called. grave accent over “è”: léger - légère, dernier - dernière.

When forming the feminine gender, some adjectives undergo changes in their original form:

nouveau - nouvelle

jumeau - jumelle

vieux - vieille

Formation of feminine adjectives in -eur:

If such an adjective is formed from existing verb, then the feminine gender will have the suffix “euse”. For example: menteur - menteuse (derived from the verb mentir)

Exceptions:

enchanteur - enchanteresse

detecteur - detectrice

There are two genders of nouns in French: masculine and feminine.

When learning a new word, you need to remember its gender. Many textbooks recommend memorizing a noun immediately with an article.

But, let’s take, for example, the Russian language - here you also need to memorize the gender of the noun. But we, as a rule, don't do this. Moreover, we can guess what kind of noun it will be if we are shown even a newly invented word. The same is true in French.

Knowing the ending of a word, we can most likely classify it as masculine or feminine. Of course, there will not be a 100% guarantee, but you will have much fewer errors. Here are a few signs that will allow you to “guess” the gender of a noun.

Easy to remember option

If the word ends in
–e or -ion- then most likely it is feminine

Attention!
In one of the textbooks I came across a phrase that words in –ion- always feminine. This is not so, here are examples: le camion (truck), l’avion (plane, aviation), le million (million).

More accurate option

Masculine

A word is likely to be masculine if it ends in:

-ment/-phone/-scope/-isme
Examples:

• le gouvernement, le monument, le medicine
• le telephone, le magnetophone
• le microscope, le telescope
• le realisme, le socialisme, l’optimisme

(the words don’t even require translation, everything is clear :))

-age/-ège
Examples:

• le garage (garage), le fromage (cheese)
• le collège (college), le manège (playpen)

Attention, common “exceptions”!

• la plage (beach), la cage (cage), la page (page), la nage (swimming), l’image (image)

-eau
Examples:

• le bureau (office), le couteau (knife)

Attention!

• How to write the ending of such words is very easy to remember, for myself I call it the ending "water", because eau- this is water in French. But the word “l’eau” itself is feminine!

-ail
Examples:

• le travail (work), le vitrail (stained glass)

-al
Examples:

• le journal (newspaper!), le cheval (horse)

And:

• -aire: le commissaire (commissioner), le dictionnaire (dictionary)
• -ier: le métier (profession), le cahier (notebook)
• -teur: le monteur (installer), l’ordinateur (computer)
• -an: l'an (year), le sang (blood)
• -on: le jeton (token), le glaçon (ice cube)
• -ain: le pain (bread), le bain (bath, bathhouse)
• -ent: le vent (wind) l’argent (money)
• -et: le billet (ticket), le guichet (cash office)
• -oir: le devoir (duty), le pouvoir (power)

Feminine

A word is likely to be feminine if it ends in:

-tion/-sion
Examples:

• la situation (situation), la solution (decision), la réalisation (implementation)
• la décision (decision), la télévision (television)

-ance/-ence
Examples:

• la connaissance (knowledge), la dépendance (dependence), la ressemblance (similarity)
• la référence (reference, link), la permanence (constancy), la différence (difference)

-ode / -ade / -ude
Examples:

• la method (method)
• la promenade (walk), la salade (salad)
• la certitude (confidence)

-te
Examples:

• la société (society), la réalité (reality), la bonté (kindness), la beauté (beauty), la santé (health)

Attention, common “exceptions”:

• le côté (party), l’été (summer), le comité (committee), le député (deputy), le pâté (pie, pate)

—ette
Examples:

• la bicyclette (bicycle), la trompette (pipe), la baguette (stick, baguette - a type of bread)

-ique
Examples:

• la politique (politics), l’informatique (informatics)

-ure
Examples:

• la culture (culture), la peinture (painting)

And:

• -ee: la journée (day), la matinée (morning)
• -elle: la novelle (short story), la chandelle (candle)
• -esse: la jeunesse (youth), la politesse (politeness)
• -ie: la boulangerie (bakery), la maladie (illness)
• -ine: la cuisine (kitchen), la semaine (week)

P.S. And, by the way, Word can suggest the correct article :) If you write la instead of le before a masculine word, it will underline the incorrect article with a green wavy line. (To do this you need to install

French nouns are only masculine or feminine. In French dictionaries, the gender of nouns is usually indicated by letters m (masculin - male) and f (feminin - female):

• fils, m - son(pronounced [fis]);
• fille, f - daughter(pronounced [fiy]).

Function words allow determine gender and number noun in French (if endings allow gender to be determined in Russian, in French this is possible in a limited number of cases).

Unlike the Russian language, French nouns are not inflected:

• from Russian the phrases “my son”, “my son” at", "my son A", "my son ohm"will be translated the same" mon fils» [mɔ̃-fis].

Listen to how the French words sound " fils"(son) and " fille"(daughter) with some in official words .

Do the exercise

The exercise will ask:

• listen to the phrase and choose correct option(translation of the phrase is shown after the answer);
• translate phrases;
• enter missing function word;

At the end of each block, you can correct mistakes and listen to the phrases again.

Familiarize yourself with the rules for using function words and complete the exercise (recommendations are given below the table). In this section, some of the lessons will introduce you to the rules of grammar, and some of the lessons will help you remember words (etc.).

Exercises

The exercises in the first few lessons will be simple enough to:

• you could focus on understanding the main part of the lesson;
• got used to the type of tasks and were not distracted by them; gradually the tasks will become more complicated (you will need to think more) or more tasks will be offered (30-50).

The main task that faces you :

• learn not to think about the choice of function words (there are not many of them). Exercises will help with this (there is no need to cram the expressions themselves; the first few lessons are aimed at introducing you to the features of grammar). Carefully read the tasks for each exercise, as they clarify what you need to pay attention to and give recommendations on how best to perform the exercises to get the maximum effect.

When learning French, students may have difficulty determining the gender of a noun. The fact is that in French nouns have two genders: masculine and feminine. Consequently, many words have a gender different from the Russian language, because, as we know, Russian has 3 genders (masculine, feminine, neuter). The problem of gender distribution in French arises. For example, the word “table” is feminine in French, but masculine in Russian. What to do in this situation? How to determine what gender a particular noun has in French? What is the best way to remember the gender of nouns? Let's try to understand these issues.

In fact, there is a way out: you need to master French suffixes, thanks to which you can determine what gender a French noun has. If you memorize French suffixes, then you will not need to memorize the gender of all nouns that you encounter in the process of learning the language. When you see a word, you can determine what gender it is.

So, masculine suffixes in French:

— age(le fromage, l'ouvrage). Exceptions: la cage, la page, la plage, la rage, la nage, l’image;

—ail(le travail, le corail);

— al(le canal, le végétal);

—ament(le medicine, le testament);

—ard(le cafard, l'épinard);

—as(l'atlas, le bras);

- at(le plat, le syndicat);

— eau(le bureau, le chapeau). Exception: la peau;

— eil(le vermeil, le soleil);

— ement(le bâtiment, le département);

— et(le brevet, le cabaret);

—euil(le fauteuil, le deuil);

— gramme(le kilogramme, le program). Exception: une epigramme;

— ier(le clavier, le fermier);

—er(le boucher);

— in(le matin, le boudin);

— is(le permis, le soucis);

— isme(l'optimisme, l'humanisme);

— oir(le miroir, le couloir);

— on(le cordon, le fourgon). Exceptions: la leçon, la façon;

Also, in French, the following nouns are masculine:

1. days of the week (le jeudi, le samedi);

2. names of the months (le février, le juin);

3. seasons (l’hiver, le printemps);

4. names of languages ​​(le français, le russe);

5. names of trees (le pin, le frêne);

6. names of metals (le fer, le cuivre). Exception: la fonte - cast iron;

7. names of parts of speech and grammatical categories (le nom, le genre). Exceptions: la conjonction, la préposition, l’interjection, la personne, la voix;

8. names of some professions (un écrivain, un médecin, un architecte, un chauffeur, un maire, un auteur, un professeur, un témoin, un chef d’orchestre).

At first glance, it seems that there are a lot of suffixes and rules. But, if you make a little effort, then determining the gender of nouns in French will no longer be a problem for you. And in the next article you will be able to familiarize yourself with the features of feminine suffixes.