Except for non-native speakers who would inherently expect a veil, an accessory typically worn by females, to be the feminine one…. What you need to know is that the word has a gender, not the concept it represents. But with genders attributed to words in a way that seems completely arbitrary, how can you ever learn the genders of every French noun? : s is pronounced as “sh”, z as “z” – put them together, you obtain sz pronounced as “s” and zs as the first sound in the French word “jurer”, or in “manGer”. You can see this, for example, in the case of English, which did have genders in its older forms, as well as a formal and informal “you”. There are many approaches to learning the genders of French nouns. OR J’en ai marre de cette chaise ! Isn’t it?! À la cantine, Daniel a choisi une pomme, une soupe, et un sandwich. I quickly picked it up, and we’d sing it every afternoon. Good news – there’s a plural “the” (les), but it stays the same for groups/things of either gender. – words that end with ‘ion’ are feminine In addition to that, I included a vocabulary list about clothes and finally common phrases about origins.I will try to give examples using both vocabulary and grammar.That way it will be easy for you to see the words when they are separate and when they are in a sentence. For instance, I used to babysit a little French boy who loved to sing the French lullaby “Au Clair de la lune”. The past week Sam Gendreau wrote an interesting article right on Korean language. the belief under I operate —> the belief I operate under Il y a toujours des exceptions. Have I misunderstood or, in this case, with two different meanings of the word command (and two different ways to write it), one case has a feminine form and the other a masculine one? mur-wall what is it These are adjectives you can use to guess how other adjectives with similar endings will change. 32 years in France and I’m still lost with word gender. They go to the cinema every week. How to know the gender of French nouns with 80% accuracy, Other ways to learn and remember the gender of French words, How to learn and practice French noun gender. These are two different words, although their meaning and origin are similar. Yeah, I have no doubts about what you say. Masculine singular: content Besides that, this a good strategy for beginners, who will sound foreign no matter what anyway. 2 Answers. After a while, you’ll see that you can intuitively guess the gender of a noun based on its ending. According to a study by McGill University, a noun’s ending indicates its gender in 80% of cases . This is also the case when you’re talking about people and other living things: Cléa, Hélène, Rose, et Paul aiment les films. Not that this isn’t understandable; imagine trying to change a language in such a massive way. – handsome Hello, what did you mean by “(but not after s/c¸)” in the first line of the masculine list? (vowel) , My rule of thumb – all feminine nouns end with ‘e’…except in rare cases like ‘homme’. Yeah German has a third gender too. In this episode, I’ll introduce to you the main rules on feminine & masculine usage and some of the common exceptions to the rule. man, dog, house). Actually you don’t have to learn ALL those endings… If the word ends with E it is almost certainly feminine. It can be either masculine - intelligent - or feminine - intelligente (as is the case the nearly all adjectives in French) and it can be plural as well. As for vowels, there exist 12, of different lengths – o is shorter, than ó, or u is shorter than ú, etc. Would I say "meine Schatz" because my date is feminine? But nowadays, you can choose to make them feminine, like so: une professeur/une prof (a (female) teacher); une écrivain (or une écrivaine, especially in Canadian French) (a female writer). If we called that same structure “un monument” then it is masculine. In French for instance we call that modern marvel The Eiffel Tower “La Tour Eiffel”. 2,347 13 13 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. en ‘technical regulation’ means technical specifications and other requirements or rules on services, including the relevant administrative provisions, the observance of which 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. Feminine singular: triste Start studying Gender of Adjectives. Here are some categories of French words that are typically masculine: Here are some categories of French words that are typically feminine: For more details about these categories, you can have a look at this list or this one, which includes links to two French podcasts about how to tell what gender a word is. It will get easier and easier with time :). It’s really uncomfortable!). In French, all nouns have a gender—they are either masculine or feminine. This should be your number one French gender checker if you’re writing essays, letters or any longer document in French. He suggests the Hangul alphabet is not so difficult to learn compared to other oriental languages. For example, older generations may not think men should help with household chores, but many of the younger Frenchmen I know do help with chores, as well as taking care of and spending one-on-one time with their children. masculine. Why organizing nouns into general groups seemed necessary, and why certain nouns that would seem inherently masculine or feminine fall into the completely opposite category, is still uncertain. Many languages group nouns by whether they’re animate or inanimate. Examples: généreux, généreuse; peureux, peureuse. Isn’t there some Greek or Latin connection? no they are a lot of exceptions like le the, le cafe and etc. The eagle became masculine! So is different from le commandement (masculine) There’s a sad little trick to the French language regarding gender: No matter how many feminine nouns you have, if there’s just one masculine one, it takes precedence. Pensé que había dejado mis aros en el estuche, pero ahora no los encuentro. – powerful You can also learn the ending of each word individually of course but I find that learning these masculine and feminine endings helps a lot. Regardless of their unclear and arbitrary origin, you can’t master French if you don’t master French genders. masculine noun. FEMININE: the great majority of words that end in -e or -ion. The passé composé tense is the most striking example of the influence of genders and number on conjugation, although any verb tense that uses an auxiliary verb can be influenced by the gender and number of the subject. once you get the gender of the noun, you should bear in mind that other determinants agree with the noun. You are right, this would work quite well. That would probably work in most cases. How to say regalo In English - Translation of regalo to English by Nglish, on-line comprehensive Spanish – English and English – Spanish Dictionary, Translation and English learning by Britannica, Including: Translation of words and sentences, English synonyms, example sentences, related phrases, audio pronunciation, personal word lists and more Incredible! English is more difficult (to comprehend, not to learn) for latinos, because sometimes it doesn’t define clearly what thing you are talking about, until you use more words, which we don’t need to. Here are the most important grammatical elements in French that change based on genders. C’est un vrai cadeau. 1 decade ago. Is that therefore a masculine word or a feminine word? You use the masculine form if there is at least one man in the group. This means the adjective is either: Let’s take several adjectives as examples. I couldn’t seem to find it in the common endings part. One easy way to keep up what you’ve learned about genders in French is to choose a word, guess if it’s masculine or feminine, then look it up online or in a print dictionary to check if you’re right. “Gender” is still the term used for this kind of classification, though. Two genders: masculine and feminine. Cléa, Hélène, Rose, and Paul like movies. I just printed it so I can keep on my desk for noticing the words’ gender and also to be reviewed from time to time. But the masculine “wins over the feminine”, meaning that when not knowing the gender of the cat one is talking about or when talking about cats in general, the use is to say: le chat, ou les chats, except obviously if one is actually saying something related to female cats in general, which are: les chattes. “La tour” because when its meaning is “tower” “tour” is feminine. Feminine plural: fatiguées, Masculine singular: bon It’s been years since I babysat that little boy, and years since I’ve been speaking French, so when I say or write those words today, the song doesn’t necessarily come to mind, but there was a time when it did for some of them! That is the question you often ask yourself as a French learner. (I’m sick of this chair ! You can see some signs of social change in in the French language itself. At the cafeteria, Daniel chose an apple, a bowl of soup, and a sandwich. el estuche para lápices (m) means that a noun is masculine. gender pronouns inflection. Feminine plural: tristes. Here's what's included: SpanishDict is the world's most popular Spanish-English dictionary, translation, and learning website. -ité: la cité, la vélocité, la vérité; For instance, look at how countries in French use different prepositions depending on their gender. While reading this, I simply realized there is an easier way to tell masculine from feminine nous: by checking on your list, I saw that 90% of all feminine words end with a voyelle! La chemise: Le chemisier . I tend to do that too in English. In certain cases, gender can be used to clarify the meaning of a word with two very distinct definitions. Other words like stylo, livre, crayon, cahier tableau are masculine as they do not seem to share this (pair) property. Remove ads. asked Sep 22 '13 at 16:32. So, the masculine noun bateau (meaning boat) takes the form of le bateau (the boat), un bateau (a boat), or les boats (the boats). except endings : And they had even more trouble when it came to a list of feminine words. pianista) you will notice the ending is the same for both the masculine and feminine forms. Masculine … In this case, if you’re talking about a group of nouns and just one person/thing is masculine, the adjective you use to describe the group will be masculine, as well. If a word ends with ‘eux’ is it masculine or feminine? Is it just me or could you narrow it down even more: According to Wikipedia, genders are derived from Proto-Indo-European languages. When I was teaching French in Korea, I could see how difficult it was for Koreans to know in what orders to put the words, which is relatively easy for English speakers. Une pièce, des pièces. I have a much simpler way to identify the vast majority of nouns as being masculine or feminine. In 1 minute of speech you are likely to use many 10s of nouns, and thus you have to accept that unless you have memorized the gender of vast numbers (thousands) of words, you will not be able to avoid sounding like a foreigner. ‘Handsome’ all buildings apartment, museum, cinema, airport , Bus stop, Jetty , merci, I would like to know about this too! Still, nothing’s impossible – or, as the French like to say, impossible n’est pas français. Share. Todos pusimos flores en el ataúd antes de enterrarlo. ‘une table’ – a table has four legs. You’ll discover how genders influence these elements in the last section of this article. PLAY. How do u say ‘they’ in both masculine and feminine form? Figure out the Gender of French Nouns. Elle n’est vraiment pas confortable. I got used to associating the nouns in the song with the words around them that signified their gender. But before you do, here’s how to easily know the gender of French words. This being said, there are some feminists and activists who think that feminizing a profession is sexist unto itself and that all professions in French should simply be a single word, not two separate, male and female versions. Still, whether there’s logic to them or not, genders are a part of the French language and knowing them is essential when it comes to speaking and writing correctly. Share your thoughts in the comments section! When it comes to the passé composé, for example, when you conjugate a verb with the auxiliary être, the past participle must agree with the subject’s gender (and number). There are exceptions, but if you know these patterns, you’ll know how most adjectives change based on the gender of the noun they modify. Associating each noun with such a vivid image helps you remember its gender more easily. 5 years ago . Have you tried it yet? it is the word chosen. Musée , lycée etc think museum lyceum …suggests masculine? Masculine or Feminine? (NOTE: the endings for feminine words that you listed above follow this rule for the most part, without having to remember dozens of different endings). Masculine noun endings, what would oiseau be Take the word “Légume” when you say it, “Lay-g-ew-m” it sounds like it ends with “m”. For example, in German, there’s a third gender: neuter. Voilà – no confusion! From rule above, maybe there is way to simplify it, all endings with ‘e’ are feminine +90%, Un chat, une chatte. That means that not only do concepts that may reinforce gender stereotypes persist in the language used for some French professions; unpredictable gender rules do, too. Unlike English, French nouns are either MASCULINE or FEMININE This is known as the GENDER 2. Learning French grammar can be very hard. can create increasing misunderstanding of the various possibilities of construction of a phase. They could only agree on the gender of 17 of those! In a 2008 study , native French speakers were asked to determine the gender of 93 words (which it turns out were all masculine). 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. Hey! Yeah French is actually one of the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn. We all placed flowers on the casket before we buried it. 80% rule – genius, thanks ! The reason you say “mon” is because it starts with a “a”. Vous êtes allé(e)(s) If none of these other strategies speak to you, here’s another that’s often recommended: Instead of simply learning each word and its gender by heart, it can be smart to associate each gender with an action in your mind. Il existe deux genres : masculin et féminin. I know this is beside the point but I find people that “sound like foreigners” to be very charming! But which do I use bavard (masculine) or bavarde (feminine)? Choose the right one for you and you’ll get them right a vast majority of the time. can somebody tells me why? For example, Voici la robe que tu as achetée pour Juliette. 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. el cuaderno. You understood well. Did you know that ‘aigle’ (eagle) was feminine until the early 19th century, when Napoléon decided it would become its emblem (more noble than the rooster, right). 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. (source https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/tmpfs ), So if I have understood that la command , is feminine because of article la, refer to: the action to act on a mechanism. Follow edited Oct 30 '13 at 3:13. Of course! In my own experience, I find that younger generations are much more open to gender equality, not just in theory but in practice. Relevance. feminine + masculine = masculine plural adjective; Some adjectives remain unchanged in the feminine and plural forms. -on: la maison, la raison. Unlike English, there are two ways to say “they” in French: Note that in French, masculine nouns take precedence over feminine ones. Plus you’ll get the added benefit of the input of possibly great literature, depending on what you chose. – Sharp are masculin el diccionario. Just read, that’s the best way to get grammar without breaking your brain trying to remember abstract and boring rules that always have tons of exceptions. If you have questions, suggestions or if you have found a mistake, please send us an email@cactus2000.de.. Just downloading the apps for a newspaper or two, or even starting with simple stories such as children books will do wonders. 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