french

Examples
French Grammar • Print version • audio (info •113 kb • help)
Gender of Nouns Genre des Noms
Masculine
le cheval the horse -age
le chien the dog -r
le livre the book -t
le bruit the noise -isme
Feminine
la colombe the dove -ie
la chemise the shirt -ion
la maison the house -ite/-ité
la liberté liberty -nce
Common Endings Used
With Masculine Nouns:
le fromage
the cheese
le professeur
the teacher
le chat
the cat
le capitalisme
capitalism
Common Endings Used
With Feminine Nouns:
-nne
-mme
-lle
la boulangerie
the bakery
la nation
the nation
la fraternité
brotherhood
la balance
the scales
la fille
the girl
l’indienne
the Indian
Unfortunately, there are many exceptions in French which can only be learned. There are even words that
are spelled the same, but have a different meaning when masculine or feminine; for example, un livre (m)
means a book, but une livre (f) means a pound! Some words that appear to be masculine (like la photo,
which is actually short for la photographie) are in fact feminine, and vice versa. Then there are some that
just don't make sense; la foi is feminine and means a belief, whereas le foie means liver. To help overcome
this hurdle which many beginners find very difficult, be sure to learn the genders along with the words.
Definite and indefinite articles
The definite article
In English, the definite article is always “the”.
In French, the definite article is changed depending on the noun's:
1.
2.
3.
Gender
Plurality
First letter of the word
There are three definite articles and an abbreviation. "Le" is used for masculine nouns, "La" is used for
feminine nouns, "Les" is used for plural nouns (both masculine or feminine), and "L' " is used when the