Learn about the grammar gender
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| Michael: How can a word be masculine or feminine? |
| Aurore: And how can you tell its gender? |
| Michael: At FrenchPod101.com, we hear these questions often. |
| In the following situation, a language learner is out buying groceries. Sasha Lee, a high school student, is at a supermarket with her friend (Doriane Dantois). She says to the clerk, |
| "An apple and a lemon, please." |
| Sasha Lee: Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| Sasha Lee: Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| Doriane Dantois: Une seule pomme et un seul citron? |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| Michael: "An apple and a lemon, please." |
| Doriane Dantois: Une seule pomme et un seul citron? |
| Michael: "Only one apple and only one lemon?" |
| Michael: Did you notice that the nouns, |
| Aurore: pomme |
| Michael: and |
| Aurore: citron, |
| Michael: are preceded by different-sounding versions of the article, |
| Aurore: un? |
| Michael: This is because in French, every noun has a gender, and the article changes to match that gender. Other Romance languages have masculine and feminine nouns, too. It's a trait that comes from Latin. In fact, it's common among many languages in the Indo-European language family. But gender here doesn't mean that a word is somehow male or female. People don't think of certain objects as somehow being like a man or somehow like a woman. And in most cases, the gender of a French word is based on the gender that was assigned to it in Latin. |
| Michael: Let's take a closer look at the conversation. |
| Do you remember how Sasha (@hero-daughter) says, |
| "An apple and a lemon, please." |
| Sasha Lee: |
| Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| Michael: Here, the word for "apple" is feminine and the word for "lemon" is masculine. But how do we know which nouns are which? The easiest way to tell the gender of a noun is by looking at the last letter of the word. |
| The general rule is that if a noun ends with an -e, it's feminine. For example, |
| Aurore: la pomme |
| Michael: meaning "apple," |
| Aurore: la femme |
| Michael: meaning "woman," and |
| Aurore: la lune |
| Michael: meaning "moon." |
| Nouns that end with any other letter are generally masculine, like |
| Aurore: le citron, |
| Michael: "lemon," |
| Aurore: le mec, |
| Michael: meaning "guy," or |
| Aurore: le soleil, |
| Michael: meaning "sun." |
| The only thing is, there are lots of exceptions. For example, |
| Aurore: le fromage, |
| meaning "cheese," is masculine even though it ends with an -e. |
| Another example is |
| Aurore: la voix, |
| Michael: meaning "voice." This word is feminine even though it doesn't end with an -e. |
| Because there are so many exceptions to the general pattern, it's best to learn nouns and their articles together. |
| Michael: Now let's take a quick look at how adjectives are affected by the gender of the nouns they modify. |
| Do you remember how Sasha's friend (@HIGHSCHOOL-FRIEND-F) says, |
| "Only one apple and only one lemon?" |
| Aurore: Une seule pomme et un seul citron? |
| Michael: Here the noun, |
| Aurore: pomme |
| Michael: Follows the word, |
| Aurore: seule, |
| Michael: And the word, |
| Aurore: citron, |
| Michael: follows the word, |
| Aurore: seul. |
| Michael: Both |
| Aurore: seule |
| Michael: and |
| Aurore: seul |
| Michael: mean "only." But they are different because the word changes its form depending on the noun it modifies. In other words, when an adjective is modifying a masculine noun, it must also be masculine, and when an adjective is modifying a feminine noun, it must also be feminine. Since the word for "lemon" is masculine, the word for "only" must be |
| Aurore: seul. |
| Michael: And because the word for "apple" is femine, the word for "only" must be |
| Aurore: Seule. |
| Michael: So far we've learned that the ending -e is the best way to identify a feminine noun. Other words are usually masculine. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, so it is best to remember a noun's gender when learning the noun itself. |
| Michael: There are, however, a few other indicators. |
| Some endings that almost always indicate the masculine gender are |
| Aurore: -age, |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: le fromage, |
| Michael: or "cheese," |
| Aurore: -ment, |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: le document, |
| Michael: or "document," |
| Aurore: -eau |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: l'oiseau, |
| Michael: or "bird," and |
| Aurore: -oir |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: le miroir |
| Michael: or "the mirror." If you see these letter patterns when you're studying French, it's safe to assume those nouns are masculine. |
| Some feminine ending patterns are |
| Aurore: -tion or -sion |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: la nation |
| Michael: meaning, "the nation," |
| Aurore: -té |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: la liberté |
| Michael: or "liberty" and |
| Aurore: -euse |
| Michael: as in |
| Aurore: la chanteuse, |
| Michael: or "the singer." You can assume that words ending with these letter patterns are feminine. |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then repeat after the French speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say, |
| "An apple and a lemon, please." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Aurore as Sasha Lee: Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Aurore as Sasha Lee: Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Une pomme et un citron, s'il vous plaît. |
| Michael: And how to say, |
| "Only one apple and one lemon?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Aurore as Doriane Dantois: Une seule pomme et un seul citron? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Aurore as Doriane Dantois: Une seule pomme et un seul citron? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Une seule pomme et un seul citron? |
| Michael: Great job. Now you know how to use gender in French. That's all there is to it! |
| Be sure to download the lesson notes for this lesson at FrenchPod101.com — and move onto the next lesson! |
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