New learners of French are often unsettled or scared when they find out –very early- that every noun had a gender: masculine or feminine.
I hear you say: How to know whether a word is masculine or feminine? How the hell am I supposed to tell the gender of French nouns, to guess that the word” telephone” is masculine whereas the word “television” is feminine??
Well, the bad news is that you’ll need to learn/memorise it. And therefore you’ll need to set good learning habits from the start by memorising the gender of Frenchnouns as part as your vocabulary!
The good news (because there’s one!) is that you can learn rules to help you guess the gender of a word!
Note 1: The following are only general rules to help you. They contain exceptions, not all of them are listed here.
Note 2: I have dedicated two French Your Way Podcast episodes to the gender of French nouns. So you can also have the audio version of this article here:
- FYW 032 : How to Tell if a French Noun is Masculine or Feminine (Part 1)
- FYW 033 : How to Tell if a French Noun is Masculine or Feminine (Part 2)
I’ve designed a free printable worksheet to test your knowledge about the French masculine vs feminine nouns! You can get it now and fill it before reading the article, just to fun and to see how you’ve been doing, or choose to fill it only after reading:
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Part 1: Predicting the Gender of French Nouns based on Categories/Groups of Words
Are generally feminine:
Names of countires, regions and continents ending in «_e»
Examples : la France, l’Australie, la Provence, l’Afrique
Exceptions: le Cambodge, le Mexique, le Mozambique
Names of rivers
Examples: la Loire, la Seine
Exception: le Rhône, le Danube
Names of fruits and vegetables ending in «_e»
Examples: une pomme, une carotte, une salade, une courgette
Exception: le gingembre
Names of virtues/qualities and shortcomings
Examples: la gentillesse, la beauté, la franchise
Exceptions: l’orgueil, le courage (see why in Part 2)
Are generally masculine:
Names of countries not ending in «_e”
Examples : le Japon, le Canada, le Brésil
Names of days, months and seasons
Examples: le lundi, le mardi, le dimanche, un septembre pluvieux (= a rainy September), un été, un hiver
Numbers and quantities
Examples: le 14 février, un million, un huitième (= one eighth), un tiers (= a third), un quart
Exception #1: la moitié (= half) (see why in Part 2)
Exception #2: numbers ending in «_aine» : une douzaine, la trentaine, la centaine
Names of languages
Examples: le français, le chinois, le russe
Names of colours
Note: we’re talking about the nouns, not about the adjectives!
Examples: le bleu, le vert, le rouge
Names used in the metric system
Example: un litre, un mètre, un gramme
Names of metals, materials
Example: l’or (= gold), le fer (= iron), l’acier (= steel), l’argent (= silver), le cuivre (= copper)
Names of trees
Examples: un pommier, un cerisier, un chêne (= oak tree)
Note: listen to my French Your Way Podcast episode about the names of fruit and fruit trees (episode 30)
Nouns made from adverbs, pronouns, verbs, etc
Examples: le souper, le mal (= evil), le pourquoi, le comment
Nouns borrowed from English
Examples: le basketball, un tee-shirt, le whisky
Bonus: What about the names of brands?
How will you translate the following examples?
a) I bought a Mercedes.
b) I like to play with my Playstation.
The gender of the brand will actually be the gender of the noun that is implicit:
a) I bought a Mercedes.= I bought a Mercedes (car).
In French, the word for “car” (“voiture”) is feminine. Therefore:
J’ai acheté une (voiture) Mercedes.
b) I like to play with my Playstation.= I like to play with my Playstation (console).
In French, the word “console” is feminine. Therefore:
J’aime jouer avec ma (console) Playstation.
Part 2: Predicting the gender of French nouns based on the end spelling
Many students assume that if a word ends with the letter “_e”, it’s going to be feminine. That’s wrong, this rule would have too many exceptions! (eg. un téléphone, un livre, le musée du Louvre, un barrage, etc).
The following rules should help you!
Are generally feminine:
Nouns ending in «_ion»
Examples: une question, une conversation, une interrogation, une décision
Exceptions #1: million, billion, trillion (see Part one: numbers)
Exceptions #2: un avion, un camion, un scorpion, un espion, un champion
Nouns ending in “_aison”, “_ison”
Examples: la conjugaison, une maison
Nouns ending in «_ade»
Examples: une escapade (a getaway), l’escalade (rock-climbing)
Exceptions: le jade, un stade, un grade
Nouns ending with the sound [ãs] (spelled “_ance”, “_anse”, “_ence”, “_ense”)
Examples: une correspondance, la danse, la prudence, une dépense
Exception: : le silence
Nouns ending in “_té”
Examples: une université, la conformité, une identité + many nouns formed from an adjective, such as: la générosité, l’amabilité, l’intégrité, la méchanceté, la visibilité, la solidité
Nouns ending in «_tié”
Examples: une amitié, la moitié, la pitié
Nouns ending in «_ée»
Examples: la journée, la soirée, une vallée, une fée (= fairy)
Exceptions: words rerived from Greek, such as: le musée, le trophée, un scarabée, un lycée
Nouns ending in “_tte”
Examples: une bouillotte (a warm water bottle), une fourchette, une maisonnette, une fillette
Exception:un squelette
Nouns ending in «_eur»
Examples: la pâleur, la chaleur, la laideur (ugliness), une odeur, la Chandeleur
Exceptions: l’honneur le bonheur, le malheur,
Are generally masculine:
Nouns ending in “_sme”
Example: le communisme, le capitalisme, le marasme
Nouns ending in «_et»
Examples: un ticket, un garçonnet
Nouns ending in «_euil»
Example: le cerfeuil (chervil), un écureuil, un fauteuil, un cerceuil (coffin)
Nouns ending in «_ant» (“_ante” will be feminine)
Examples: un éléphant, un cerf-volant, un volant (steering wheel; shuttleco*ck)
Nouns ending in «_al» (“_ale” will be feminine)
Examples: un animal, un journal, un cheval, un festival
Nouns ending in «_g»
Examples: un poing, un pargaing (breeze/concrete block), un coing (a quince)
Nouns ending in «_age»
Examples: le courage (see in Part1: virtues), un mariage, le ménage, un garage
Exceptions: une cage, une image, une page, une plage, la nage, la rage (rage, anger; rabies)
Nouns ending in «_eau»
Examples: un pinceau, un chapeau, un château, un chapiteau, un gâteau, un bateau
Exceptions: la peau, l’eau
Nouns ending in ”_in”, «_ain» (“_ine”, “_aine” will be feminine except: domaine capitaine magazine)
Examples: le vin, le train, le copain
Note: for more about the word «copain», listen to French Your Way Podcast, episode 27!
Nouns ending in ”_ent” and “_ment” (whereas nouns in «_ente» will be feminine)
Examples: un document, un regiment, un appartement, le vent, un parent, un adolescent
Exceptions : une dent, une jument (mare)
Nouns ending in ”_er”, “_ier” (endings in “_ère” and “_ière” will be feminine)
Examples: un boucher, un boulanger, un banquier, un pâtissier, un poissonnier, un cahier
Nouns ending in “_oir”
Examples: le soir, l’espoir, un miroir
Nouns ending in “_on”
Examples : un champignon, un patron (boss, manager), un coupon (voucher)
Gender of French Nouns: Conclusion
Don’t worry: you don’t need to memorise these general rules in one go, but it’s good to have an awareness of the clues that will help you predict the gender of a word. As you learn more French vocabulary, you can then notice some patterns and remember them better.
When in doubt, it’s always better to refer to your dictionary to checkthe gender of a noun.
Read my article “How to use your dictionary efficiently”.
Remember that I’ve also recorded two episodes of French Your Way Podcast about the gender of French nouns, so you may want to listen to this option as well, especially if you’re an auditory learner.
Now, test yourself with my free worksheet!
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Finally, is there anything else you’d love to learn about French language? 🙂
