Language/French/Grammar/Nouns-which-refer-both-to-males-and-to-females

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Bonjour! French learners 😀

Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. Unfortunately, there is no easy rules for predicting the gender of a noun.

Here is a list of French names that refer to either men or women simply by changing the determinant from masculine to feminine:

Please write a comment below if you know of other similar nouns! 👌

Consider broadening your understanding by checking out these related lessons: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Weather verbs & Directly transitive verbs without objects.

Nouns which refer both to males and to females

French	Translation
un/une adulte	an adult
un/une adversaire	an adversary
un/une artiste	an artist
un/une bibliothécaire	a librarian
un/une camarade	a comrade
un/une célibataire	a bachelor/spinster (an unmarried person)
un/une chimiste	a chemist (scientist)
un/une collègue	a colleague
un/une compatriote	a compatriot
un/une complice	an accomplice
un/une concierge	a porter
un/une convive	a guest
un/une dentiste	a dentist
un/une élève	a (school) pupil
un/une enfant	a child
un/une esclave	a slave
un/une fonctionnaire	a civil servant
un/une gosse	a kid (a word for a child in informal French)
un/une interprète	an interpreter
un/une journaliste	a journalist
un/une libraire	a bookseller
un/une locataire	a tenant
un/une malade	a person who is ill
un/une partenaire	a partner
un/une patriote	a patriot
un/une pensionnaire	a boarder (as in boarding school)
un/une philosophe	a philosopher
un/une photographe	a photographer
un/une pianiste	a pianist
un/une pique-assiette	a sponger
un/une secrétaire	a secretary
un/une touriste	a tourist

• NB: "pupille" meaning "pupil of the eye" is uniquely female. In fixed expressions such as "pupille de la Nation" (Ward of the Nation), "pupille de l'Etat" (Ward of the State), the noun designates a child whose education is funded by the State. In this sense, "pupille" can be masculine or feminine depending on the sex of the child.

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

Other Lessons

• Polite Form
• Restrictions on possible combinations
• Agreement of the past participle having the auxiliary "être" in compound tenses
• Double object constructions with no preposition
• English and French adverb formation
• Subjunctive Mood
• Agreement of past participles with preceding direct objects in questions
• Position of object pronouns with faire, laisser, envoyer or verbs of perception + infinitive
• Subject verb agreement — Agreement with more than one subject linked by “et”
• Emphasizing me, te, se, nous, vous by adding a pronoun + même
• How to use Have
• L’on VS on
• Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with fractions
• Plurals of nouns ending in –ou
• encore VS toujours