Language/French/Grammar/How-to-Guess-the-Gender-of-French-Nouns

How to Guess the Gender of French Nouns

Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. French genders are important: You can’t master French if you don't know French genders.

You often ask yourself as a French learner: "Which nouns are feminine or masculine?".

😅 Good news! Luckily, the use of French genders is pretty simple, even if your language doesn’t use genders for nouns. Gender of nouns do not have to be learnt by heart.

There are certain rules that can be used to predict the genre with varying degrees of accuracy.

⚠ Be careful not to forget that there are always exceptions to these models.

What does gender influence?

Firstly, you need to know that the gender has an influence on:

1. The article used before a noun
2. Pronouns
3. The ending of adjectives
4. The ending of verbs

Articles

In French, you have a masculine article ("le") and a feminine article ("la") :

• La voiture

The car

• Le chien

The dog

Similarly, you have a masculine "un" and a feminine "une".

• Une maison

A house

• Un avion

A plane

You also need to make the difference between “du” (masculine) and “de la” (feminine) :

• De la farine

Some flour

• Du pain

Some bread

Pronouns

Pronouns change depending on the subject's gender:

• Il

He

• Elle

She

They are two ways to say "they":

• Elles (feminine subject)

They

• Ils (masculine subject)

They

Adjectives

French adjectives change based on the gender and number of the noun they modify.

Here are several adjectives as examples:

Grand (tall)

• Masculine singular: grand
• Feminine singular: grande

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• Masculine plural: grands
• Feminine plural: grandes

There are exceptions, but if you know these patterns, you’ll know how most adjectives change based on the gender of the noun.

Verbs

The "passé composé" tense is the best example of the influence of genders on conjugation:

• Je suis allé (I am a boy) / Je suis allée (I am a girl)
• Il est allé / Elle est allée
• Nous sommes allés (There are boys in our group) / Nous sommes allées (We are only girls)
• Ils sont allés / Elles sont allées

Guess the gender based on endings

Very often, a noun’s ending indicates its gender in the majority of cases.

Write these endings in your notebook, don't learn them by heart as it would be boring.

After a while, you will see that you can easily guess the gender of a noun.

Complete list

Majority of masculine noun endings

• -an, -and, -ant, -ent, -in, -int, -om, -ond, -ont, -on (but not after s/c)
• -eau, -au, -aud, -aut, -o, -os, -ot
• -ai, -ais, -ait, -es, -et
• -ou, -out, -out, -oux
• -i, -il, -it, -is, -y
• -at, -as, -ois, -oit
• -u, -us, -ut, -eu
• -er, -é after C (C=t)
• -age, -ege, – ème, -ome, -aume, -isme
• -as, -is, -os, -us, -ex
• -it, -est
• -al, -el, -il, -ol, -eul, -all
• -if, -ef
• -ac, -ic, -oc, -uc
• -am, -um, -en
• -air, -er, -erf, -ert, -ar, -arc, -ars, -art, -our, -ours, -or, -ord, -ors, -ort, -ir, -oir, -eur
• (if animate)
• -ail, -eil, -euil, -ueil
• -ing

Majority of feminine noun endings

• -aie, -oue, -eue, -ion, -te, – ée, -ie, -ue
• -asse, -ace, -esse, -ece, -aisse, -isse/-ice, -ousse, -ance, -anse, -ence, -once
•  -enne, -onne, -une, -ine, -aine, -eine, -erne
• -ande, -ende, -onde, -ade, -ude, -arde, -orde
• -euse, -ouse, -ase, -aise, -ese, -oise, -ise, -yse, -ose, -use
• -ache, -iche, -eche, -oche, -uche, -ouche, -anche
• -ave, -eve, -ive
• -iere, -ure, -eure
• -ette, -ete, – ête, -atte, -otte, -oute, -orte, -ante, -ente, -inte, -onte
• -alle, -elle, -ille, -olle
• -aille, -eille, -ouille
• -appe, -ampe, -ombe
• -igue

Simplified list

• Feminine noun endings: The majority of words that end in "e" or "ion" except words ending in "age", "ege", "é", or "isme"
• Masculine noun endings: Most words with other endings are masculine.

Associate each gender with an image

It can be smart to associate each gender with an image in your brain.

The association needs to be personal, this must be something you will easily remember. For example, If you love colors, you could imagine each word with a different color depending on its gender.

Learn Nouns with Their Genders

When you learn a new noun, learn it right away with its gender.

Let's say you're watching a movie with French subtitles, which is a great way to see a lot of new words.

Learn each new word with their gender. Instead of saying "chien means dog," write:

"UN chien" means "a dog"

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

VIDEOS

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What about you? How do you guess the gender of new nouns? Please share your comments or directely edit this article!