Language/French/Grammar/Nouns-which-change-form-when-they-refer-to-males-or-to-females

Nouns which change form when they refer to males or to females

Regular patterns

For words ending in -i, -é, -u, -l an -e is added in the written form and the pronunciation remains the same:

Tab1

For words ending in -d, -t, -ois, -ais, -er, -ier an -e is added and the final consonant, previously not pronounced, is pronounced:

Tab2

For words ending in -ien, -on, -an, -in, -ain in written form -(n)e is added and the final vowel, previously pronounced as a nasal vowel, is pronounced as an oral vowel plus -n:

Tab4

Some nouns add -esse.

Tab5

Tab6

Nouns ending in -eur which are not derived from a French verb, change –eur to -rice:

Tab7

Those ending in -eur which are derived from a French verb change to -euse:

Tab8

Irregular patterns

In addition to these regular patterns there are a number of masculine/feminine forms where the words are quite different:

Tab9