French grammar is the set of rules by which the french language creates statements, questions and commands. French translation of adventure the official collins englishfrench dictionary online. In french, very often the ending of a noun changes depending on whether it refers to a man or a woman. In french, all nouns have a genderthey are either masculine or feminine. True, there is le penis, but thats the technical term. May 05, 2020 although french people dont use articles every single time they say a word, memorizing words along with an article is a very easy way to ingrain in your memory if a word is masculine and feminine. In this blog post, ill go over the feminine endings. You should always learn nouns together with their articles to be sure of their gender.
If you come upon a word you dont know, if you are lucky the article will be right there next to it to help you along. This was a text book used in one of my classes in a masters program in transpersonal psychology. This can be hard to wrap your mind around, but it might help to think about gender in english, limited as it is. Determining the gender of nouns in french, all nouns. It provides a permanent source of reference and perhaps the only comprehensive documentary evidence on the subject available today. Quiz french gender general rules this quiz is interactive at fh. If, for example, the noun or pronoun is singular, its verb and any adjectives describing it must also be singular. Every french noun has a grammatical gender, either masculine or feminine. The gender of the noun determines which form of determiners words. The best place to start is by looking at the end of a word.
You all know that in french, even inanimate objects are feminine or masculine. Well show you how to recognize them, with plenty of common french nouns as examples. If the word already ends in an e, there is no need to add an extra one. There are several endings that will clue you in to a words gender. We recommend a virtual dictionary like word reference. As vexing as this subject is for nonnative speakers, we simply have to accept that french gender is here to stay. A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing, whether concrete e. Stones and ideas are feminine, while books and diamonds are masculine. A noun is a word used to name a person, place, thing, idea, or quality.
In a bilingual dictionary, nouns may be designated by an n. Which gender a noun belongs to depends on various criteria such as the gender of the personanimal they represent if any, or the ending of the noun for example, nouns ending in ation are feminine. The following is an extensive list of masculine and feminine words. How can you tell if a noun is masculine or feminine. The word cheval horse is masculine, whereas jument mare is feminine, because they both reflect the gender of the animal. How do you know if a french word is masculine or feminine. Masculine and feminine quiz todays french french etc. Focus on gender confronts the french gender problem and defines it in the most concise manner possible. These three patterns are much easier to learn than every single word gender out there. French possessive adjectives learn french free french. Describes a noun or pronounfor example, a tall girl, an interesting book, a big house. Ask a french teacher how can i tell if a noun is masculine or. There are even words that are spelled the same, but have a different meaning when masculine or feminine.
Learn all about the gender of nouns in french grammar with lingolia, then test your knowledge in the free exercises. Sometimes assigning gender to a word might seem arbitrary, but there are a few tricks that will help you tell if a word is masculine or feminine. Every noun has a gender genre, either masculine or feminine. Here are the best tools to pick the right gender for any word. What is the ratio of masculine and feminine words in the. The accent aigu is used to open up the sound of a closed e when it is not followed by a final d, f or z example. Why is temoin always masculine and victime always feminine. Change microsoft word s default language to french. But determining gender isnt always that logical, especially with. There are 3 variations of accent marks diacritical marks in the french language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number singular or plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled.
Mar 21, 2019 french gender is a headache for many students of french. But in french it changes depending on whether youre talking about a masculine noun pere or a feminine noun mere. Here, these words are grammatical terms, they dont mean acting in a femininemasculine way. Mar, 2018 when taking french grammar lessons, the easiest way to know if a word is masculine or feminine is quite simply by learning it with its article or looking it up in the dictionary. Easy, watch this language lesson from french pod 101.
Mar 21, 2018 when taking french grammar lessons, the easiest way to know if a word is masculine or feminine is quite simply by learning it with its article or looking it up in the dictionary. As such, it serves to confirm or deny previous notions about french gender. A lot of nouns that refer to men take their feminine form simply by adding an e e. French translation of adventure collins englishfrench. A noun in french is considered either masculine or feminine and is not related to the gender of the person who possesses the object. We have many nouns ending in ment in french, and they are masculine. Identify feminine and masculine in french part 2 the. You should always have a french article to show the gender of the noun, and learn the article and the noun together, as one piece of information. English translation of livre collins frenchenglish dictionary. In french, there are two genders, usually called masculine and feminine. As you might have guessed, the word for woman, femme, is feminine. Jan 28, 2019 a noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing, whether concrete e. In fact, consider yourself lucky that youre studying french. Il est generalement place apres le nom et saccorde avec le nom ex.
In english, we call all things for example, table, car, book, apple it. But did you know some endings can tell you the gender of french nouns. How to know the gender of french nouns with 80% accuracy. Over 100,000 french translations of english words and phrases. 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. For example le vin the wine, le magasin the shop, le. Decide between the masculine or feminine form, according to the ending of the word.
Different cultures have different standards regarding what they consider feminine or masculine. 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. Learn more in the cambridge englishfrench dictionary. Translate english to french listen and learn language helpers. And there is le zizi, but thats a childrens word, roughly the equivalent of willy. Has anyone ever noticed that the french for penis is. Some examples of pronouns in different grammatical positions within a french sentence with their. In many respects, it is quite similar to that of the other romance languages french is a moderately inflected language. Bonpatron online spelling and grammar checker for french. The important thing to remember is that if a noun is feminine, then the preceding word must also be in the feminine form, e. The word cheval horse is masculine, whereas jument mare is feminine. In arabic, soup and the calendar year are feminine. Learn to speak french and use the feminine and masculine forms of adjectives, pronouns and.
Speakers of these languages must take care to mark gender with definite articles and pronouns. Here is a table with some rules to help you determine the gender of a noun. Over 00 english translations of french words and phrases. All french adjectives agree in number singular or plural and gender masculine or feminine with the nouns they describe. The word for book in french is livre and is a masculine noun. So, for example, never make lists with columns feminine and masculine and just write the french noun in them. French pronunciation rules of stress french syllables are evenly stressed. Here, these words are grammatical terms, they dont mean acting in a feminine masculine way. The gender of some nouns makes sense homme man is masculine, femme woman is feminine but others dont. 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. Girls and women are feminine, which is reflected grammatically in the use of she and her, while boys and men are masculine. In english, we can sometimes make a word masculine or feminine by changing the. Well theres a little confusing twist for english speakers.
In english, thats about all there is to know about singular nouns. The bad news is, of course, that there are exceptions. Masculine and feminine french words and their uses the. Bonpatron online spelling and grammar checker for french as. The french have feminine and masculine words for african. This has nothing to do with biology, its just a way french organizes words. It is archaic but can still be used, after all, any language lives through its speakers. French possessive adjectives learn french free french lesson. To form a feminine word from the masculine in french, you simply add e if the word ends in a consonant. Writing in french with masculine and feminine nouns dummies. French vocab masculine or feminine flashcards quizlet. In fact, in french, all words in a sentence must agree with each other. A basic, singular noun refers to just one of something.
In english, we can sometimes make a word masculine or feminine by changing the ending, for example, english man and english woman, or prince and princ ess. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Is the word book in french masculine or feminine answers. A few word endings tend to indicate whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Search a word to get the related masculine or feminine word. The grammatical gender of a noun referring to a human usually corresponds to the nouns natural gender i. While there is no rule that determines why certain things are feminine and some masculine, some endings give a good indication of the gender of a word.
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. When a french noun describes a live being, its gender masculine or feminine often reflects the gender of the being in question. A french gender checker will make it all so much easier. This should be your number one french gender checker if youre writing essays, letters or any longer document in french. Although french people dont use articles every single time they say a word, memorizing words along with an article is a very easy way to ingrain in your memory if a word is masculine and feminine. Look at these examples and see if you can spot what it is.
If you want to say white houses you must say, des maisons blanches. There are way too many masculine words ending with to assume a word ending with is more likely to be feminine. Masculine and feminine french words and their uses we love prof. French noun endings can be a telltale sign of gender. 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. Static masculine, dynamic masculine, static feminine, dynamic feminine. An ongoing dialogue between masculine and feminine dress codes. Translate your english phrase by typing the words into the form below and. However, the last syllable of a word is slightly emphasized. Based on popular dictionary le petit robert, the proporti.