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All nouns in French have a gender, either masculine or feminine. For the most part, you must memorize the gender, but there are some endings of words that will help you decide which gender a noun is. Nouns ending in -age and -ment are usually masculine, as are nouns ending with a consonant. Nouns ending in -ure, -sion, -tion, -ence, -ance, -té, and -ette are usually feminine.
Articles and adjectives must agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify. Articles have to be expressed even though they aren't always in English; and you may have to repeat the article in some cases. Demonstratives are like strong definite articles.
Masculine | Feminine | Before Vowel | Plural |
le lit /lə li/ the bed |
la pomme /la pɔm/ the apple |
l'oiseau /lwazo/ the bird |
les gants /le ɡɑ̃/ the gloves |
Masculine | Feminine | Plural |
un lit /œ̃̃ li/ a bed |
une pomme / yn pɔm/ an apple |
des gants /de ɡɑ̃/ some gloves |
Masc. | Masc, Before Vowel | Fem. | Plural |
ce lit /sə li/ this/that bed |
cet oiseau /sɛ twazo/ this/that bird |
cette pomme /sɛt pɔm/ this/that apple |
ces gants /se ɡɑ̃/ these/those gloves |
If you need to distinguish between this or that and these or those, you can add -ci to the end of the noun for this and these, and -là to the end of the noun for that and those. For example, ce lit-ci is this bed, while ce lit-là is that bed.
To make a noun plural, you usually add an -s (which
is not pronounced). But there are some exceptions: |
Sing. |
Plural |
|
If a noun already ends in an -s, add nothing. | bus(es) | le bus | les bus |
If a noun ends in -eu or -eau, add an x. | boat(s) | le bateau | les bateaux |
If a masculine noun ends in -al or -ail, change it to -aux. | horse(s) | le cheval | les chevaux |
Some nouns ending in -ou add an -x instead of -s. | knee(s) | le genou | les genoux |
Exceptions: festival, carnaval, bal, pneu, bleu, landau, détail, chandail all add -s. There are only seven nouns ending in -ou that add -x instead of -s: bijou, caillou, chou, genou, pou, joujou, hibou. There are, of course, some irregular exceptions: un il (eye) - des yeux (eyes); le ciel (sky) - les cieux (skies); and un jeune homme (a young man) - des jeunes gens (young men).
Notice that the only time the pronunciation will change in the plural form is for masculine nouns that change -al or -ail to -aux and for the irregular forms. All other nouns are pronounced the same in the singular and the plural - it is only the article that changes pronunciation (le, la, l' to les).
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