Language/French/Grammar/Gender-of-countries,-towns,-islands,-rivers,-regions-and-states
Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. Unfortunately, there is no easy rules for predicting the gender of a noun. However, it is not necessary to learn all genders by heart as there are certain models that can be used to predict the genre with varying degrees of accuracy. Be careful to remember that there are always exceptions to these models.
After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Superlative forms of adjectives & Use of en with numerals and quantifiers.
Countries[edit | edit source]
General Rule[edit | edit source]
Some countries are masculine, others feminine. The general rule is that a country's name is masculine unless it ends in -e, in which case the name is feminine:
French | English |
---|---|
le Canada | Canada |
le Danemark | Denmark |
le Koweït | Kuwait |
le Japon | Japan |
le Liban | Lebanon |
la Chine | China |
le Maroc | Morocco |
la Finlande | Finland |
la Norvège | Norway |
la Libye | Libya |
la Mauritanie | Mauritania |
le Nigeria | Nigeria |
la Roumanie | Romania |
le Portugal | Portugal |
la Suisse | Switzerland |
la Syrie | Syria |
- Note: Les Etats-Unis (masculine-plural).
Exceptions[edit | edit source]
As we mentioned earlier, there are always a few exceptions to the general rule:
- le Cambodge (Cambodia),
- le Mexique (Mexico),
- le Mozambique (Mozambique),
- le Zaïre (Zaire),
- le Zimbabwe (Zimbabwe).
"en" or "au(x)"[edit | edit source]
'To' or 'in' a country is either "en" or "au(x)":
- "en" is used with countries of feminine gender, and countries of masculine gender beginning with a vowel,
- "au" is used with countries of masculine gender beginning with a consonant, and
- "aux" with those countries whose names are plural, whether masculine or feminine:
Examples[edit | edit source]
- en Chine
- au Canada
- au Japon
- aux Etats-Unis
- en Norvège
- en Iran (masculine)
- en Israël (masculine)
- en Suisse
Towns[edit | edit source]
Towns, in normal usage, are masculine. In formal written French they are sometimes feminine, particularly those which end in -e:
- Cambridge est plein(e) de touristes en été
Cambridge is full of tourists in summer Where the name of a town includes a definite article, adjectives and participles must agree with the gender of the article:
- La Baule est située sur le littoral atlantique
La Baule is on the Atlantic coast
- Le Touquet est désert l'hiver
Le Touquet is deserted in winter
Islands[edit | edit source]
Islands are usually feminine:
- la Sardaigne Sardinia
- la Crète Crete
- la Nouvelle-Zélande New Zealand
But le Groenland 'Greenland' is an exception.
Rivers, regions and states[edit | edit source]
For rivers, French départements, French regions, for states and regions in other countries, the best generalization is that if they end in -e they are feminine:
Rivers[edit | edit source]
- le Rhin the Rhine
- le Tarn the Tarn
- le Cher the Cher
- la Sâone the Sâone
- la Seine the Seine
- la Tamise the Thames
Exceptions[edit | edit source]
- le Rhône 'the Rhône'.
Départements[edit | edit source]
- le Calvados la Haute-Garonne
- le Gers la Marne
- le Jura la Vendée
Exceptions[edit | edit source]
- le Finistère.
French regions[edit | edit source]
- le Berry la Normandie
- le Limousin la Bretagne
- le Périgord la Champagne
States and regions in other countries[edit | edit source]
For example, American states:
- le Massachusetts la Louisiane
- le Nevada la Californie
- le Texas la Floride
Exceptions[edit | edit source]
British counties appear mostly to be treated as masculine, even those ending in '-shire':
- le Kent
- le Perthshire
- le Yorkshire
Gender of Nouns (all lessons)[edit source]
Other Chapters[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Homophones
- Collective nouns
- Omission of the article with nouns in apposition
- Easy way of generating the imperfect tense
- Typical use of the indefinite article
- Adverbs ending in —amment and —eminent derived from adjectives ending in —ant or —ent
- Use of y
- Plural indefinite article "des" VS preposition "de" and definite article "les"
- tard versus en retard
- Gender
- The indirect object complement
- Nouns
- Easy way of generating the imperfect subjunctive
- Pronominal Verbs Agreement
- Prepositions