The Gender of French nouns.....how difficult can it be?

“Did you know that ‘aigle’ (eagle) was feminine until the early 19th century, when Napoléon decided it would become its emblem (more noble than the rooster, right). The emperor’s emblem could not be feminine (no need to ask). The eagle became masculine!”

Most French teachers and French speakers will tell you that there’s no logic or reason to whether a noun is masculine or feminine. No explanations exist as to why French nouns have a gender or how the gender of any noun was originally determined, so you cannot rely on a rule to guide you; however, certain endings do generally indicate a feminine or masculine noun. For the most part, though, the gender of nouns must be memorized — through repetition, you can likely commit them to memory.

Remember that your instincts about a word may not always be correct, for example le féminisme (feminism) is masculine and la masculinité (masculinity) is feminine. Makes total sense, NO?

When adding a new word to the French language, either for a new concept (for example, the internet) or as a borrowing from another language, who decide whether it should be masculine or feminine?

If the word is untranslated into French, then it is always masculine. For example, Le camping, le weekend…. As always there is exception, if the word applies to a woman (e.g une pin-up).

There are many approaches to learning, memorise and practice the genders of French nouns. Here are just a few suggestions:

Memorize new French words with an article

You’ve probably come across lists of French vocabulary with a definite or indefinite article in front of each word. Although French people don’t use articles every single time they say a word, memorising words along with an article is a very easy way to ingrain in your memory if a word is masculine and feminine. And as you start memorizing words this way, you may notice that certain types of words tend to be one gender or another, which will give you more of a chance of guessing, if you ever have to.

Memorize categories of words that are typically masculine or feminine

Although learning word endings that tend to be masculine or feminine is a more all-encompassing method, learning categories that are commonly masculine or feminine can be pretty helpful, too. Of course, not everything can be neatly put into a category that has all or mostly masculine or feminine nouns, but there are a decent number of categories out there, and maybe, as you learn French, you’ll notice patterns and come up with categories that make sense and work for you, in addition to the established ones.

Remember that if a word in a particular category has another meaning, the gender of that second meaning probably won’t be the same, for example, orange is masculine when it’s a colour and feminine when it’s a fruit.

Here are some categories of French words that are typically masculine:

• wines
• cheeses (although there are some exceptions, usually involving the description of the form of the cheese, for example, la tomme, une brique)
• colours
• metric units
• numbers (note that the numeric concept that ends in -aine (=about this much, this decade of a person’s life, is feminine (la quarantaine, une cinquaiantaine de personnes))
• metals
• languages
• trees
• days of the week
• seasons
• months

Here are some categories of French words that are typically feminine:

• brand names of cars
• brand names of watches
• names of rivers
• sciences and other domains of learning (la science, l’histoire, la chimie, etc.). Le droit (the law) is one notable exception to this rule.

How to learn and practice French noun gender

One easy way to keep up what you’ve learned about genders in French is to choose a word, guess if it’s masculine or feminine, then look it up online or in a print dictionary to check if you’re right. If you’re not, try saying or writing the word with its masculine or feminine article a few times. You may also want to check if it belongs on the list of typically masculine or feminine word endings.

La FIN