1 – Bonjour et bienvenue!
Grammaire: 1.4 – Le genre grammatical
Le genre grammatical = grammatical gender
In French, a noun is always feminine or masculine. It is introduced by a determiner, which usually indicates the gender of the noun.
People
When a noun refers to a person, the gender is determined by the person’s sex (although some exceptions do exist).
In general, the feminine form of the noun is formed by adding an -e to the masculine noun. Note that the addition of the -e changes the pronunciation in some words:
| Joe-Bob est étudiant, Tammy est aussi étudiante. | Joe-Bob is a student, Tammy is a student |
| Tex est ami avec Joe-Bob, Tammy est aussi amie avec Joe-Bob. | Tex is Joe-Bob’s friend, Tammy is also Joe-Bob’s friend. |
There are cases when the feminine form of the noun changes more drastically.
| Edouard: Je suis serveur. Tammy: Je ne suis pas serveuse. |
Edouard: I’m a waiter. Tammy: I’m not a waiter. |
| Trey: Je suis musicien. Tammy: Je ne suis pas musicienne. |
Trey: I’m a musician. Tammy: I’m not a musician. |
In general, when the masculine noun ends in -e, the feminine noun remains unchanged. Only the determiner or the context indicates if it is a feminine or masculine noun.
| Tex est poète. Rita n’est pas poète.
Rita est secrétaire. Tex n’est pas secrétaire. |
Tex is a poet. Rita is not a poet.
Rita is a secretary. Tex is not a secretary. |
Objects and ideas
The gender of nouns referring to things and abstractions is arbitrary. However, it can often be inferred from the ending of the word.
Typically, words ending in -age, -ment, -eau, -phone, -scope, -isme are masculine.
Words ending in -tion, -sion, -té, -ette, –ance, -ence, -ie, -ure, -ode/-ade/-ude are feminine.
| masculine endings | feminine endings |
| le fromage (cheese) | la salade (salad, lettuce) |
| le monument (monument) | la fourchette (fork) |
| le sentiment (feeling) | la télévision (television) |
| le couteau (knife) | la culture (culture) |
| le téléphone (telephone) | la situation (situation) |
| le microscope (microscope) | la société (society) |
| le romantisme (romanticism) | la différence (difference) |
| la philosophie (philosophy) |
