Nous sommes allé(e)s Similarly, you have a masculine “a” (un) and a feminine “a” (une). How do you determine the gender of new French nouns you encounter? This means the adjective is either: Let’s take several adjectives as examples. In particular, sciences and subjects ending in -graphie — like photographie (photography), géographie (geography), and chorégraphie (choreography) — are feminine. I got used to associating the nouns in the song with the words around them that signified their gender. You might not be good at or like to memorize long lists, or you may find it easier to memorize things in a different, less straightforward way. French also has masculine and feminine articles; le, les, and un are the masculine articles, while la, les, and une are the feminine ones. In a 2008 study , native French speakers were asked to determine the gender of 93 words (which it turns out were all masculine). This may have had practical, as well as religious, purposes. Although learning word endings that tend to be masculine or feminine is a more all-encompassing method, learning categories that are commonly masculine or feminine can be pretty helpful, too. Claire, Donald, Céline, Christine, et Roger étaient tous fatigués. For example: The word cheval (horse) is masculine, whereas jument (mare) is feminine, because they both reflect the gender of the animal. OR J’en ai marre de cette chaise ! You’ll find it below this first list. Unlike English, there are two ways to say “they” in French: Note that in French, masculine nouns take precedence over feminine ones. Fortunately, there are methods that you can use to learn, memorize, and guess the genders of French nouns. According to a study by McGill University, a noun’s ending indicates its gender in 80% of cases . Vous êtes allé(e)(s) You can recognize many masculine nouns by the type of ending they have. In addition, verb agreement is a “must” when a verb conjugated with avoir is a direct object. So, if you like music, poetry, books, movies, TV series – just about anything that can let you hear/see and become familiar with French words in situ, this is a great way to supplement your French word gender knowledge. But with genders attributed to words in a way that seems completely arbitrary, how can you ever learn the genders of every French noun? This article includes a great list of French word gender games you can play on your own or with a group. The previous list has the advantage of being exhaustive, but as French Together reader Amosnliz notes in the comment section, you can learn with a simplified, shorter list. But determining gender isn’t always that logical, especially with inanimate objects, like things and ideas. This won’t hold true 100% of the time, but you’re much more likely to be right if you follow this rule than if you simply guess. Feminine plural: contentes, Masculine singular: fatigué Many other professions can now also be feminized, since the concept has been officially recognized by the Académie Française (a ruling that was only made in 2019). You can compare this to the way the word “actor” is being used more and more frequently to describe both males and females with this profession in the Anglophone world. But I’ve got news for you: Even native French speakers occasionally have trouble with it! Others are always feminine, like une voiture (a car), une maison (a house), and une école (a school). À la cantine, Daniel a choisi une pomme, une soupe, et un sandwich. Associating each noun with such a vivid image helps you remember its gender more easily. For example, Voici la robe que tu as achetée pour Juliette. Masculine plural: bons A number of more logical categories also help you spot those feminine nouns. In my own experience, I find that younger generations are much more open to gender equality, not just in theory but in practice. For instance, some nouns are always masculine no matter what, like un sac (a bag), un manteau (an overcoat), and un ordinateur (a computer). 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”. But before you do, here’s how to easily know the gender of French words. You could imagine, for example, that masculine nouns fall into water while feminine nouns are eaten by a monster. There are, however, certain patterns in suffixes and word endings that are a tip-off. Masculine plural: tristes 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. Feminine plural: fatiguées, Masculine singular: bon This is also the case when you’re talking about people and other living things: Cléa, Hélène, Rose, et Paul aiment les films. When it comes to learning genders in French, I feel like I’m living proof of what the McGill study found. Let’s explore why genders exist in the French language, why they’re important, and how you can finally be sure of which gender to use a vast majority of the time. Names of businesses: boulangerie (bread shop), parfumerie (perfume shop), charcuterie (deli). But French people decided  to use gender to be sure that the meaning is clear. Interestingly, this isn’t the case in all forms of French. You can read about her adventures here, or feel free to stop by her website. You can vent your frustration with a scream if you’d like, or maybe a French swear word. French nouns and articles A noun is a naming word used for a person, thing, place or idea. Not that this isn’t understandable; imagine trying to change a language in such a massive way. 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. Most words with other endings are masculine. These are adjectives you can use to guess how other adjectives with similar endings will change. Note that these pronouns aren’t just used with people, but with any noun, since they all have genders. Nouns ending in -age and -ment are usually masculine, as are nouns ending with a consonant. 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. Personally, although the endings method is the one I’ve found the most useful, I’ve always tried to memorize vocabulary with an article, as well. So, the masculine noun bateau (meaning boat) takes the form of le bateau (the boat), un bateau (a boat), or les boats (the boats). For example, traditionally, jobs like teachers and writers were only used with masculine nouns. Read 13 common French mistakes that’ll make you feel awkward before you use this adjective. 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). For example, in German, there’s a third gender: neuter. Good. 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. Verb agreement is a sail or a veil, these gender patterns are foolproof... A noun ’ s a fruit in suffixes and word endings and we ’ ll get them right a majority., yes, this does all mean that French noun genders are arbitrary! “ the ” ( un ) and a sandwich doctoresse is used in Swiss and French. 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