Which article should you use? If your learning material dont mention it, or if you cant make it up from a sentence, the only way to be sure is to check a dictionary. However, its all part of the process. However, tisane is the word used in daily life while th is the word used in official occasions. (Very useful to know where to place words in sentences!). Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to know whether a noun is masculine or feminine. In reality, its the contraction of the articles, when they precede a noun starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u). This button displays the currently selected search type. French Nouns With Two Genders. For example : La France, lItalie, la Slovaquie, lAlgrie, la Syrie. I'm Annie Andr, a bilingual North American with Thai and French Canadian roots. I like these rules. Here's a basic list of the colors in both genders for you: Masculine: blanc (white), noir (black), rose (pink), rouge (red), bleu, orange, jaune (yellow), gris (grey/gray), marron (brown), vert (green), violet (purple). There are a lot of options when it comes to language learning textbooks. Are You Quiet Quitting Your Own Business? When evoking the names of countries in French, you will usually use a definite French masculine, feminine or plural article (le / la / les) to go with it. (= schoolwork) exercice m 4. Well there are actually quite a few words you can use. If your goal is only to make yourself understood, then you dont need to be perfectly perfect with masculine and feminine genders, grammatically speaking of course. I think the hardest part of language learning is that there are those distinctions in masculine and feminine. For cities, its almost always feminine. Others are always feminine, like une voiture (a car), une maison (a house), and une cole (a school). In particular, sciences and subjects ending in -graphie like photographie (photography), gographie (geography), and chorgraphie (choreography) are feminine. I have allowed myself to use such sloppy English that I have to stop and think sometimes when I say something, or mainly write. In my language, we do not have the male for female words for things, we just add another word to the back and done deal, lol. On the picture below, you can see that the gender of the word chat is masculine, because you have the abbreviation nmwhich means masculine name. Learning French grammar can be very hard. Thats why many English speakers struggle with this aspect of French. Fascinating facts about Latin based languages, From Paris to Provence: Weather in France in June by Region (avg climate & temp), 11 ways to say cheers In French +1 drinking song & toast etiquette in France, Le Blog: My French cabinet of curiosities. Please check your Promotions Tab and/or Spam Folder. See how the ending changes? You can check out this article for more ideas. I said most cases because there are some exceptions. The following nouns are generally feminine. COPYRIGHT 2022 TOPICTEA. Thanks for commenting. Rules always come after. How many times should a shock absorber bounce? Learning French can be rewarding but challenging. But now, you are wondering, how can you know which countries are feminine and which are masculine? Wed love to keep you updated with our latest content. The gender of French nouns tends to be a sticky grammar point for students, especially when it does not exist in their mother tongue. directeur → masculine Elle is the feminine pronoun. Je vais la plage : Im going to the beach. It was truly comprehensive, insightful, and everything. Thank you for sharing the list of all the suffixes. We are talking about: Why you still cant speak French despite learning, Whats the most common word in french ? A List of English Singulars That Are French Plurals, Masculine and Feminine French Nouns ~ Noms, Understanding and Using French Adjectives (Adjectifs), French Demonstrative Adjectives: Adjectifs Dmonstratifs, French Words Describing the Home ('la Maison'), Learn French Prepositions with Geographical Names, It's 'Ces Filles' in French, Not 'Cettes'. "Voiture" is feminine so the adjective "franaise" must agree and is in the feminine form. Rules are build for a situation that already exist. Simple, right? We use it for plural nouns, whether theyre masculine or feminine. Examples: des pommes (some apples), des gteaux (some cakes), des lettres (some letters), etc. As the name implies, partitive articles have to do with the parts of something. Je suis Marie and I'm on a mission to make learning French simple. ThoughtCo. I dont understand why one object is feminine while another is masculine. What countries are feminine and masculine in French? Choose the correct indefinite article. We wont cover that here but will probably do in the future. You dont need to read what follows, or it would spoil the surprise of compound tenses for you. Because its as easy to use as Google Translate, and its actually better because it gives you all sorts of definitions, examples in context, AND the gender of nouns! Here is an example: When visiting with those who speaking English well it is always a bit intimidating for me as I realize I could do some improving. to make money [person] faire de l'argent; [business] rapporter de l'argent He made good money when he worked. Words are either feminine and masculine in French, thats all. The gender of some nouns makes sense ( homme [man] is masculine, femme [woman] is feminine) but others don't: the words personne [person] and victime [victim] are always feminine, even when the person or victim is a man! No permanent residents: mainly seasonal military personnel, scientific researchers and support staff. Examples: du lait (some milk), du jus (some juice), du beurre (some butter), etc. 1 noun = 1 gender. I tried to study Russian a couple of years ago but didnt continue. Let me know in the comments below. If you are a native English speaker, or a native of a language that doesnt use grammatical gender it might sound a bit odd to your ears to hear a table is feminine and a horse is masculine. le la. Many words that are always capitalized in English cannot be capitalized in French or are only sometimes capitalized, such as nationalities. Many thanks. Well thats how the gender influence the past participle. Is France feminine or masculine in French? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Its really interesting to learn about the differences between our languages. You shouldnt say oui in all situations! The French speak French with the French person in France, Francois is French, and Isabelle is French. But the thing is thats not where you should start. By the way, what language do you speak if you dont mind my asking? What is the gender of a French word? All French nouns are either masculine or feminine and, just as in English, they can be either singular or plural. Without knowing the rules, you might be wondering why some nationalities in French are capitalized, while others are not. Unlike English, French nouns have a gender (genre): they can be masculine (masculin) or feminine (fminin). Groups of all females or all feminine objects are elles (the feminine "they") Groups of all males or all masculine objects are ils (the masculine "they") Groups of any size with one or more masculine members are ils (the masculine "they") This last rule is probably the hardest to grasp. Do you know of any easy to use learning programs to help make it a little easier. I think the challenges in speaking French that I have always heard about are real issues. le la. Is it all feminine because its said to a womanor is it all feminine because its said by a woman? For instance, some nouns are always masculine no matter what, like un sac (a bag), un manteau (an overcoat), and un ordinateur (a computer). Names of trees: chne (oak tree), olivier (olive tree), pommier (apple tree), Names of metals: or (gold), acier (steel), fer (iron), Names of metric units: mtre (a meter), kilo (a kilo), centimtre (centimeter), Names of colors: le rouge (red), le vert (green), le bleu (blue), Names of languages: le chinois (chinese), lallemand (german), le franais (French), Nouns of English origin: tennis (tennis), parking (parking lot), football (soccer). She currently teaches French at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas.
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