How French works
Nouns are words like table or song that describe things that we can see or feel about us. In French all nouns are either masculine or feminine and this is known as gender.
Gender is often shown in the word that comes before the noun, such as le which comes before masculine nouns or la which comes before feminine nouns.
It is not usually clear from the noun what gender it is, so when you learn a new noun it is best to learn it with the le or la. There are, however, some categories of noun that are all masculine or feminine .
The following categories of noun are generally masculine.
| Word type | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| Words referring to males | le père | father |
| Languages | le français | French |
| Seasons | le printemps | Spring |
| Countries not ending in -e | Canada | Canada |
Here are some examples of masculine words with their articles in sentences :
C'est le père de Nicholas
He's Nicholas's father
Nous jouons au football le mardi
We play football on Tuesdays
Elle parle bien le français
She speaks French well
Le Canada est très beau
Canada is very beautiful
The following are generally feminine.
| Word type | Example | English |
|---|---|---|
| Words referring to females | la mère | mother |
| Most countries ending in -e | la France | France |
| Vegetables, fruit ending in -e | une carotte | carrot |
| Most shops | la boucherie | butchers |
Here are some examples of feminine words with their articles in sentences:
C'est la mère de Sandrine
She's Sandrine's mother
La boulangerie est tous près de chez nous
The baker's shop is right next to where we live
J'ai mangé la pomme
I ate an apple
La France est plus grande que l'Angleterre
France is bigger than England
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