Gender in French

All French nouns are either masculine or feminine (English has three genders, by the way. although some would argue it has four). A challenge for a lot of beginning students of French is to learn which nouns are masculine and which are feminine. It is surprisingly easy, easier even than Spanish and considerably easier than learning German gender.

Below are rules that will correctly predict the gender of thousands of nouns:

Masculine		Feminine
1. All nouns referring to males     e.g. l'homme (man), le garçon (boy)		1. All nouns referring to females     e.g. la femme (woman), la fille (girl)
2. All nouns ending with -ment     e.g. le gouvernement, le changement		2. All nouns ending with -sion or -tion     e.g. la nation, l'invasion
3. All nouns except eau (water) ending with     -eau e.g. le réseau, le bureau		3. All nouns ending with -ie     e.g. la manie, la folie
4. All nouns ending with -age     e.g. le message, l'héritage		4. All nouns ending with V-C-C-e     e.g. la cigarette, la finesse, la brosse
5. Most nouns ending with     a vowel sound     e.g. l'espion, le serpent		5. All nouns ending with -té     e.g. la vérité, la liberté
6. All nouns ending with -c     e.g. le lac, le banc, le mec		6. All nouns ending with -ure     e.g. la bordure, la mesure, la serrure

7. All nouns ending in -isme                           7. Some words ending in -que.
    e.g. le communisme, le nationalisme              e.g. la banque

8. Most nouns ending with a consonant          8. Most nouns ending with -ière
    e.g. le but, le fer, le cul, le métal                     e.g. la matière


I want to clarify a few things about the rules above. I will list the number of the rule and then an explanation:

Masculine Nouns Rule 5: Words ending on vowel sounds are generally masculine. While the words in the example end in -n and -t, that is consonants when written down, these consonants are not pronounced. When the words are pronounced, you will hear that the last sound in each is a vowel sound. Be careful not to confuse the spelling with how the word is actually pronounced.

Masculine Nouns Rule 5: The rules for feminine nouns take precedence over this rule. So, for example, even though the word "la nation" ends in a vowel sound, it is feminine by virtue of the fact that it ends in -tion. In other words, rule 2 for feminine nouns applies rather than rule 5 for masculine nouns.

Feminine Nouns Rule 4: The letters V-C-C-e mean a vowel followed by a double consonant e.g. 'ss', 'tt', 'll' and then by an -e.


Gender by Name and Other Memory Tricks

If you want, you can use a few memory tricks to help you remember some of the rules:

Masculine Rule 3: Beau is a man's name. A boyfriend is sometimes referred to as a beau.

Masculine Rule 6: Luc (Luke in English) is a man's name.

Feminine Rule 3: Marie is a woman's name.

Feminine Rule 4: Jeanette, Smurfette, Claudette and Chantelle are women's names.

Feminine Rule 5: The Statue of Liberty (Liberté) is a woman.


Just for Interest

The French word for "gender" is "le genre".

In France there is a quiz show called "Questions Pour Champions". In one of the rounds, contestants are given a list of nouns and then have to say if each is masculine or feminine. They do not always get the answer right, so you are not alone if you make the occasional error.

I once had a French person ask me what the gender of a particular noun was as they were not sure. The fact is that some nouns sound as if they could be either masculine and feminine with the result that even French speakers are not always sure what the gender might be in some cases.