Gender Agreement
Noun Gender – Masculine and Feminine
- In French, nouns have a gender. Each noun is either masculine or feminine.
These words for instance are masculine: ordinateur chien livre
These are feminine: voiture chienne table - Consequently, the articles (like a, the) used with each name will be masculine or feminine too.
Here is a list of the articles in French:Masculine Feminine A (indefinite singular) Un Une Some (indefinite plural) Des Des The (definite singular) Le La The (definite plural) Les Les
Here are few examples: the word ‘tree’ (« arbre ») is masculine in French so ‘a tree’ is
“un arbre”. The word ‘apple’ (“pomme”) is feminine in French so ‘an apple’ is “une pomme”.
There is, unfortunately, no rule to determine the gender of a noun. The easiest way is to, each time you learn a new word in French, memorize its gender too. - Also, remember that, when followed by nouns starting with a vowel, definite singular articles (le, la) become L’:
Examples: « avion » (‘plane’) is not « le avion » but « l’avion »
« élève » (‘pupil’) is not « le élève» but « l’élève»
« idée » (‘idea’) is not « la idée » but « l’idée »
