because I’m a french teacher living in Nigeria and I discover that while teaching my student and I was stranded to provide answer to their questions. Ade, as in la promenade (the walk), la limonade.

Read 13 common French mistakes that’ll make you feel awkward before you use this adjective. And there are many of them. That is the question you often ask yourself as a French learner. If you want a more complete answer about memorisation: read How to remember French words. Maybe they like to make you stress, maybe they like to feel superior on the sole basis of their mastery of grammar, or maybe they cannot handle things that aren’t perfect. In certain cases, gender can be used to clarify the meaning of a word with two very distinct definitions.

Articles are those little words in front of nouns. It’s, Cute in French 10 ways to say cute in French, Yes in French 10 ways to say oui in French. Please don't use these patterns as a way to avoid learning the genders of nouns - just learn each word as gender + noun and then you'll know them forever. But did you know some endings can tell you the gender of French nouns? une cage, une image, une nage, une page, une plage, une rage, un avion, un bastion, billion, un million, un lion, un scion. If you are a native English speaker, or a native of a language that doesn’t use grammatical gender… it might sound a bit odd to your ears to hear a table is feminine and a horse is masculine. 2 – Proper Names Ending in E are Usually Feminine, 3 – French Noun Ending in E + Double Consonant + E are Feminine, 4 – French Nouns Ending in Ssion and Tion are Feminine, 5 – French Nouns Ending in ale, cé, be, fe, and ace are Feminine, 6 – French Nouns Ence and Ance are Feminine, 7 – French Nouns Ending Be, Té, Ade, are Feminine, 8 – French Nouns Ending Ée, Erie, Ère, are Feminine, 9 – French Nouns Ending Ique, Ine and Ise, are Feminine, 10 – French Nouns Ending Ure and Rice are Feminine, 2 – Proper Names Ending in E are Usually Feminine, 4 – French Nouns Ending in Ssion and Tion are Feminine, 6 – French Nouns Ence and Ance are Feminine, 7 – French Nouns Ending Be, Té, Ade, are Feminine, 8 – French Nouns Ending Ée, Erie, Ère, are Feminine, 9 – French Nouns Ending Ique, Ine and Ise, are Feminine, 10 – French Nouns Ending Ure and Rice are Feminine, what does number and gender means in French, French prepositions of place used with countries, French endings which tell masculine words. Consequently, they simply must be memorized. You shouldn’t say ‘oui’ in all situations! In addition, there are some nouns that have both masculine and feminine forms that coincide with whether or not that being referred to is female or male. Feminine plural: fatiguées, Masculine singular: bon But maybe this method doesn’t work for you. It doesn’t make sense. There is only one noun in this sentence. You all know that in French, even inanimate objects are feminine or masculine.

Similarly, you have a masculine “a” (un) and a feminine “a” (une). -ité: la cité, la vélocité, la vérité; Two genders: masculine and feminine. And in the plural – Elles is for feminine words or people / Ils is for masculine and mixed words or people. While there is no precise data available, you can consider that you’ll be right 80% of the time if you use this simplified list.

– powerful You may have heard that there is only one way to know the gender of a noun: to learn it by heart. Fancy listening to a bit of French music? Except words ending in -age, -ege, -é, or -isme (these endings often indicate masculine words). These differences are only noticeable in written French since the pronunciation remains the same. French people will still understand you if you use the wrong gender.

Gender of nouns is here to make it all sound beautiful together. When it comes to learning genders in French, I feel like I’m living proof of what the McGill study found. Our team of exam survivors will get you started and keep you going.

The French word for belt is ceinture. The things which are For example, traditionally, jobs like teachers and writers were only used with masculine nouns. But it can be a very helpful way to quickly guess the gender of words that do fall into these categories, or if you’re working with these categories (say, talking about the colors of a painting), you’ll know you can keep the gender the same. Although French people don’t use articles every single time they say a word, memorizing words along with an article is a very easy way to ingrain in your memory if a word is masculine and feminine. Write. A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing, whether concrete (e.g., chair, dog) or abstract (idea, happiness). Just like when you use the right verb endings. so first i translate...let's say, hat in french.

There’s a linguistic theory that as languages evolve, they become less complex.

It’s really uncomfortable!). Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. -té: la santé, la bonté; If you hear or see a word with its article enough, or hear/see it used with adjectives, you’ll become accustomed to it being associated with a gender. la ceinture. Your lists (full and simplified) of masculine and feminine nouns is extremely useful.

PS: And join us at the French Club if you enjoyed this article. A simple explanation of "Continents, countries, regions & states are masculine, feminine or plural (gender)". Note that many nouns ending in just “ion” are masculine (un avion (a plane), un lion…). Many professions have masculine and feminine forms, as do the words 'dog' and 'cat'. - Use à la before a feminine word (eg la maison): elle est restée à la maison - she stayed at home. To make sure all the words of a sentence are singing the same tune. Note : Including possessive adjectives, which I talk about in this article (coming soon!). Ils sont tous sur son plateau. My French teachers in school made us memorize endings that are typically masculine or feminine, and that has continued to help me through my years of learning French and becoming fluent. Good news: it’s not ALL words that have a gender. Instead of learning ‘table‘, you learn ‘la table‘.

In French for instance we call that modern marvel The Eiffel Tower “La Tour Eiffel”. It torments you, you don’t understand why, or how, or anything to be honest. The French love of classifying things and making them concise means that you couldn’t have adjectives/verbs/pronouns that agree with both genders, so one had to be chosen, and the one that was chosen was the gender that had the most power at the time: masculine.

– strong PPS: A little bit of sharing would make this website even better too! Based on this study, here is a list of typically masculine and typically feminine noun endings. Instead, bookmark this page and regularly look at the list. Here we are with ‘un aigle’, now. But we do it anyway. So take this list with a grain of salt: it may help you when you hesitate, but the best way is still to memorize the gender with the noun when you learn it. Grasping the genders of different nouns is one of the more difficult concepts for beginning French students to master.