LES NOMS

A noun is a word used to name a person, place, or thing.
All nouns in French are either masculine or feminine.

How can you recognize whether a noun is masculine or feminine?

The gender of most nouns is arbitrary and should be learned at the same time as the spelling of the noun.

Certain indications, however, can help you figure out the gender of some nouns.

• Sex

                                  un père                    un chat

        Nouns that refer to female persons and animals are usually feminine.

                                  une mère                 une chatte

         Exceptions:
 
 

The following feminine forms have recently been created and are gaining popularity throughout the francophone world.

•  Nouns ending in –ail, -eau, -ent, -ier, -isme are usually masculine.

•  The following groups of nouns are usually masculine:

Nouns ending in –esse, -ette, -ie, -ion, -té, -ure are usually feminine

                 Exceptions:         le génie          le parapluie
 

The names of natural and social sciences are usually feminine.
 

The names of continents, countries, provinces, and states ending in unaccented e are usually feminine.

                 Exceptions:      le Mexique         le Maine
 

How do you form the feminine singular?
 

• Feminine nouns derived from the masculine

The feminine singular of nouns is usually formed by adding a silent e to the masculine singular.

            Nouns ending with certain combinations of letters form the feminine in other ways.
 
 

• Feminine nouns not built from the masculine

•  Some nouns form the feminine by simply using the feminine article la or une. These nouns usually refer to people. Many of these nouns end in a silent e.

• In most cases, add an s to the singular.

• If the singular ends in s, x, or z, do not add an s.

• Words with certain endings form their plurals in different ways.

•  Some common nouns have unusual plurals.

• Some nouns are always plural.

• The plural of compound nouns should always be checked in a dictionary