Language/French/Grammar/Gender-of-compound-nouns

Gender of compound nouns in French

Compound nouns fall into six main types in French, and it is possible to determine broadly the gender of a compound on the basis of the type it belongs to (although with some exceptions).

Take a moment to explore these relevant pages as you conclude this lesson: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, How to use « il s'agit de » in French & Inversion of subject and verb after some sentence initial adverbs.

Adjective + compound noun

Adjective + noun compounds normally take their gender from the noun. The noun part of the compound is highlighted in the following examples:

French	English
un arc-boutant	a buttress
un bas-côté	a verge (e.g. of a motorway)
une basse-cour	a farmyard
une belle-fille	a daughter-in-law
un cerf-volant	a kite
un coffre-fort	a safe
un grand-parent	a grandparent
un rond-point	a roundabout

• Exception: un rouge-gorge 'a robin'.

Noun + noun compounds

In noun + noun compounds the gender is determined by the more important noun, un camion-citerne 'a tanker (lorry)' is a type of camion 'lorry', so camion is the more important noun, and the compound is masculine, un hommegrenouille 'a frogman' is a type of homme 'man' (not a type of frog!), so home is the more important noun, and the compound is masculine. The important nouns are highlighted in the following examples:

French	English
une auto-école	a driving school
un bateau-mouche	a Parisian tourist boat
un bateau-citerne	a tanker (ship)
un camion-citerne	a tanker (lorry)
un chou-fleur	a cauliflower
un homme-grenouille	a frogman
un hôtel-Dieu	a hospital
une idée-force	a central idea
un mot-clé	a keyword
un oiseau-mouche	a humming-bird
du papier-toilette	toilet paper
une pause-café	a coffee break
une porte-fenêtre	a french window
un timbre-poste	a stamp
une voiture-restaurant	a restaurant car
un wagon-lit	a sleeping car

Adverb + noun compounds

In adverb + noun compounds, the compound is usually the same gender as the noun, but there are exceptions:

French	English
une arrière-pensée	a second thought
l'arrière-plan (m)	the background
une contre-offensive	a counter-offensive
un demi-tarif	a half-price ticket
une demi-bouteille	a half bottle
un hors-bord	a speedboat
une mini-jupe	a miniskirt
un haut-parleur	a loudspeaker
un sans-travail	an unemployed person

• Exceptions: l'après-guerre (m) 'the post-war period', un en-tête 'a letterhead', le sans-gêne 'the lack of embarrassment'.

Noun + prepositional phrase compounds

The gender of noun + prepositional phrase compounds is usually that of the first noun:

French	English
un aide-de-camp	an aide-de-camp
un arc-en-ciel	a rainbow
un chef d'oeuvre	a masterpiece
un coup d'ceil	a glance
un coup de pied	a kick
un croc-en-jambe	a trip
une langue-de-chat	a long, flat, finger biscuit
la main d'ceuvre	the workforce
un mont-de-piété	a pawnshop
une pomme de terre	a potato
un pot-de-vin	a bribe

• Exceptions to this generalization are: un tête-à-queue 'a spin' (head to tail in a car), un tête-à-tête 'a tête à tête conversation'.

Verb + noun compounds

Verb + noun compounds are usually masculine:

French	English
un abat-jour	a lampshade
un accroche-coeur	a (kiss) curl
un appui-tête	a headrest
des casse-noisettes	nutcrackers
un cache-nez	a scarf
un coupe-papier	a paper-knife
un couvre-lit	a bedspread
un cure-dents	a toothpick
un essuie-mains	a hand towel
un gratte-ciel	a skyscraper
un ouvre-boîtes	a tin-opener
un pare-brise	a windscreen
un pare-chocs	a bumper
un porte-avions	an aircraft carrier
un porte-bagages	a luggage rack
un porte-monnaie	a wallet
un soutien-gorge	a bra
un taille-crayons	a pencil sharpener
un tire-bouchon	a corkscrew
un trompe-l'oeil	a "trompe l'oeil' (art)

Verbal phrase compounds

Compounds constructed from verbal phrases are masculine:

French	English
le manque-à-gagner	lost revenue
le on-dit	rumour, gossip
le ouï-dire	hearsay
un m'as-tu-vu	a show-off
le qu'en dira-t-on	the 'what might people say'
un faire-part	an announcement card (weddings, births, funerals)
un laisser-passer	a pass (document)
le savoir-faire	know-how

Gender of Nouns (all lessons)

Table of Contents

• General Lesson: How to Guess the Gender of French Nouns
• Gender signalled by the final letters of the written forms of nouns
• Nouns which refer both to males and to females
• Nouns which change form when they refer to males or to Females
• Nouns which change meaning when they change gender
• Nouns which have the same spoken form but two different written forms, with different genders and different meanings
• Gender of countries, towns, islands, rivers, regions and states
• Gender of makes of vehicle and machines
• Names of ships and restaurants
• Nouns which are only masculine or only feminine, but can refer both to men and women
• Nouns with genders which English speakers often get wrong
• Gender of compound nouns

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds