A noun in french is considered either masculine or. All french adjectives agree in number singular or plural and gender masculine or feminine with the nouns they describe. The french language uses genders, masculine and feminine, for french nouns. The french have feminine and masculine words for african. Masculine and feminine nouns in spanish spanishdict. When a french noun describes a live being, its gender masculine or feminine often reflects the gender of the. French nouns gender, plural, articles, demonstratives. I learned that if they are feminine, they have an e at the end like.
But as a french teacher i should give you some patterns in word endings that tend to indicate masculine nouns, while other endings favor feminine nouns. In arabic, soup and the calendar year are feminine. In english, we dont need to worry about this kind of thing. You can complete the translation of masculine and feminine given by the english french collins dictionary with other dictionaries such as.
Mar, 2018 so, when speaking french, do you have put the adjectives in the feminine and masculine. French translation of adventure the official collins english french dictionary online. There are no real rules or logic to help you decide which article to use, statistically there are more masculine than feminine nouns. In french grammar, adjectives have to reflect both the gender masculine or feminine and the number of the nouns singular or plural they modify. Wikipedia, lexilogos, larousse dictionary, le robert, oxford, grevisse. If a singular noun is masculine then we use either le, or l. How to determine if a french word is masculine or feminine. A french teacher was explaining to her class that in french, unlike english, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. Learn the gender of french nouns, be sure to click on cheat sheet at the top. Different cultures have different standards regarding what they consider feminine or masculine.
After hours trying to figure out why feminisme feminism is masculine and masculinite masculinity is feminine, youve come to the most logical conclusion. And some words are the tricksters of the bunch, taking on different meanings with different genders, like livre, which is a book when masculine but a pound when feminine. An s is added to most singular nouns to form their plural. French grammar is the set of rules by which the french language creates statements, questions and commands. What is book in french and is it masculine or feminine.
In french we differentiate masculine and feminine nouns. There are a few general rules you can follow to determine if a noun is feminine or masculine. Feminine or masculine, that is the question you often ask yourself as a french learner. Masculine or feminine gender march 9, 2018 june, 2016 by pascal dherve how to know if a word in french is masculine or feminine, not that easy, you need to learn them but we have some tips taking into account the end of these words. Regular adjectives add e for feminine and s for plural. If, for example, the noun or pronoun is singular, its verb and any adjectives describing it must also be singular. While there are some tendencies in the gender of french nouns see the table below there are always exceptions.
A basic, singular noun refers to just one of something. What is book in french and is it masculine or feminine answers. In the same vein, sun is masculine in french, neuter in russian, and feminine in german, whereas moon is feminine in french and russian, but masculine. Describes a noun or pronounfor example, a tall girl, an interesting book. How to know the gender of french nouns with 80% accuracy. Unfortunately, these just have to be memorized although well give you some tricks and study hacks below. Speakers of these languages must take care to mark gender with definite articles and pronouns. Check out and find lots of exclusive high quality learning content such as. The companion ebook, informal and spoken french, is also now available. In fact, consider yourself lucky that youre studying french.
Writing in french with masculine and feminine nouns dummies. You should always learn nouns together with their articles to be sure of their gender. Learn all about the gender of nouns in french grammar with lingolia, then test your knowledge in the free exercises. Others are always feminine, like une voiture a car, une maison a house, and une ecole a school. Profession in french with masculine and feminine job. Masculine and feminine french words and their uses we love. Translate english to french listen and learn language helpers. An adjective is a word that describes the noun shape, color, size. You need to master the gender of french nouns to speak french with confidence. English translation of livre collins frenchenglish dictionary.
Even though there is no specific rule to determine the gender of a french noun, there are some tricks that can. The gender of some nouns makes sense homme man is masculine, femme woman is feminine but others dont. Describes a noun or pronounfor example, a tall girl, an interesting book, a big house. This is the most common way adjectives are modified for gender and quantity. If its a living being, the gender will be determined by the sex. French translation of adventure collins englishfrench. Gender of nouns in french, all nouns have a grammatical gender, that is, they are masculine or feminine for the purposes of grammar only. Masculine and feminine french words and their uses the. As vexing as this subject is for nonnative speakers, we simply have to accept that french gender is here to stay. Most french teachers and fellow french speakers will tell you that theres no rhyme or reason to whether a noun is masculine or feminine. A noun in french is considered either masculine or feminine, and is not related to the gender of the person who possesses that object. So it can be especially difficult to get accustomed to french gender rules, where every single noun is designated either masculine or feminine. In english, we call all things for example, table, car, book, apple it.
As such, it serves to confirm or deny previous notions about french gender. Determining the gender of nouns in french, all nouns. Masculine and feminine french words and their uses we. Jan 28, 2019 french nouns are always masculine or feminine, and you usually cant determine the gender just by looking at the word or thinking about what it means. Its also about imagining what an airplane would look like with a penis. May 26, 2011 is book masculine or feminine in french. French grammar nouns grammaire francaise saber frances. Again, no neutral in french, so all living being as well as well everything is either masculine or feminine. In fact, in french, all words in a sentence must agree with each other.
Vous le trouverez dans une ou plusieurs des lignes cidessous. Le tableau, loiseau, le moineau, le trousseau, le restau, le taureau all masc. The most common masculine definite article in singular form is le. Its quite odd for a rule in french to have no exceptions. As things do not divide into sexes the way humans and animals do, there are no physical clues to help you with their gender in french. You need to master french genders to speak french with confidence. Writing in french with masculine and feminine nouns by laura k. In many respects, it is quite similar to that of the other romance languages. Lawless a basic, singular noun refers to just one of something. Every noun has a gender genre, either masculine or feminine. After hours trying to figure out why cheveux hair is masculine and chaise chair feminine, you came to the inevitable conclusion. Is the word book in french masculine or feminine answers. Some school vocabulary in french is very similar to the english equivalent.
Learn to speak french and use the feminine and masculine forms of adjectives, pronouns and. If you want to learn more about french nouns we have lots of french noun video tutorials for you to study and learn. Is this french word masculine or feminine how to remember the gender of french nouns maria rice jones on. The words for school supplies in french such as paper, notebook, and book are all nouns that follow the usual patterns for french nouns. So, to say, green cars youd say les voitures vertes.
It provides a permanent source of reference and perhaps the only comprehensive documentary evidence on the subject available today. Why is temoin always masculine and victime always feminine. One of the hardest things for many students of french to learn is how to tell the difference between masculine and feminine french nouns. In this lesson, youll learn there are two genders for french nouns. The rule for gender and number of french adjectives. Mar 21, 2019 french gender is a headache for many students of french. Most nouns that express entities with gender people and animals use both a feminine form and a masculine form, for example, the two words for actor in french are acteur m and actrice f. How to say his and her in french learn french online. In french, all nouns have a genderthey are either masculine or feminine. The fact that inanimate objects have a gender in spanish does not mean that things like tables and books are physically feminine or masculine. In french, the words for school supplies, such as paper, notebook, and book, are all nouns that follow the usual patterns for french nouns. Sep 21, 2012 in french, wine and chocolate are masculine.
Over 00 english translations of french words and phrases. Well show you how to recognize them, with plenty of common french. French noun endings can be a telltale sign of gender. By signing up, youll get thousands of stepbystep solutions to your homework questions. French adjectives have different masculine and feminine forms, depending on the noun they relate and they reflect its gender and number. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. French gender is a headache for many students of french. French genders, the masculine and feminine and how to use them. Like, livre book ends in an e but is masculine le livre, and.
Most words that end in eau are masculine by definition. While theres some truth to this, largely due to the longterm evolution of the french. You can complete the translation of masculine and feminine given by the englishfrench collins dictionary with other dictionaries such as. How to know if a word in french is masculine or feminine, not that easy, you need to learn them but we have some tips taking into account the end of these words. Ses is the plural form and is masculine or feminine. Basically, you have three genders in german masculine, feminine, and neuter and although english has the same three genders, they play a very different role in german grammar. Focus on gender confronts the french gender problem and defines it in the most concise manner possible. In todays episode, you will learn how to determine the masculine and feminine forms of professions in french in a fun and easy way. Theres no rule about what makes a word masculine or feminine, but you can learn to look for some hints.
A nouns gender determines what articles the equivalents of the and a can be used with it. Unfortunately, these just have to be memorized although. Nov 14, 2019 how to identify feminine and masculine nouns in french the ending rule is the one rule that can help you identify if a word is feminine or masculine. French adjectives an adjective is a word you add to another one the noun to have more information about it, thats why we call it an adjective, because it is added. I fell in love with the book, emerging out of a jungian psychological perspective, which gives such a good feel of the energies associated with these four patterns. There are even words that are spelled the same, but have a different meaning when masculine or feminine. According to my grammar book, all languages are masculine with no exceptions. They have genders in a grammatical sense and must be used with articles and adjectives that match their gender. Simply adding an s to the singular feminine cette to make the plural is not the way french has evolved.
Mar 24, 2018 french vocabulary occupation and profession. This was a text book used in one of my classes in a masters program in transpersonal psychology. Gender with regards to words is not something we spend a lot of time thinking about in english, but in french vocabulary every single noun will have either a masculine gender or a feminine. Oct, 2019 cheri m feminine singular cherie, masculine plural cheris, feminine plural cheries past participle of cherir. That is the question you often ask yourself as a french learner.
Identify feminine and masculine in french part 2 the. One of the first things a french learner discovers is that every french noun is either masculine or feminine. Definite articles with singular masculine nouns in french. In books or french vocabulary lists, the gender of a noun is usually indicated with an m for masculine, f for feminine, or shown by the french. Static masculine, dynamic masculine, static feminine, dynamic feminine. One thing that i did not mention in the lesson is that colors are actually adjectives and in french you need to change the adjective to masculine, feminine, masculine plural and feminin plural forms depending on the noun that its describing. With reverso you can find the english translation, definition or synonym for masculine and feminine and thousands of other words. However as there are so many exceptions, these gender patterns are not foolproof, but they can help you to guess the gender of many french nouns. Also, another thing that makes learning french adjectives a bit tricky is that they must agree with the noun that theyre describing in gender masculine vs. So in french, all nouns have an assigned gender that needs to be memorised with. Over 100,000 french translations of english words and phrases. Generally, the feminine is formed with e, the masculine or general plural in s and the feminine plural in es. In english, thats about all there is to know about singular nouns. Is jonnie dee miller glenn millers daughter still alive.
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