10 things that make the French French. He said also that women and men know and use (I don’t know how many on the overall language) different words for the same things, this feature reflects the fact of an, old, difference of power between couple’s members. That means that not only do concepts that may reinforce gender stereotypes persist in the language used for some French professions; unpredictable gender rules do, too. As I said in the article, this list is simply here for reference, I absolutely don’t recommend to learn it by heart. Still, nothing’s impossible – or, as the French like to say, impossible n’est pas français. Ils vont au cinéma chaque semaine. French Translation of “male” | The official Collins English-French Dictionary online. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our. If there’s only one thing you take away from this article, it should be that the majority of words ending in -e or -ion are feminine while words with other endings are mostly masculine. Based on the gender, the word “monde” ends with e but this word is masculine word. Most of the nouns ending is eau are masculine. I am confused with the é ending cause fraternité, egalité are females….are those exceptions? (I’m sick of this chair ! This blond Basque was rufous and freckled in childhood; his curly hair and facial features give him an Irish appearance. As in English, pronouns change depending on the subject’s gender. Finally, some logic! It’s 1 error out of every 5 nouns spoken. Other words like stylo, livre, crayon, cahier tableau are masculine as they do not seem to share this (pair) property. They could only agree on the gender of 17 of those! Some of these also do have the “-e” ending following the principle above I love my language (Spanish) and, if you say a ssdistic person invented French, then that would go for Spsnish, because we also say Los cabellos (masculine) and La silla (feminine). They go to the cinema every week. Also, the adjectives in this section are plural. Is that therefore a masculine word or a feminine word? French Vocabulary: Physical Descriptions of People. We do not however say “an house made of ice” just because igloo starts with a vowel. Everything I'm saying below is a broad stereotype or generalisation and shouldn't be taken as a concrete fact. French adjectives change based on the gender and number of the noun they modify. So words whose meaning you could consider to be feminine can be masculine, and the contrary. I just find American English the most difficult: their slang words often confuses me, and I had to ask my friend why it exists, and how the word is used. the belief under I operate —> the belief I operate under In this case, if you’re talking about a group of nouns and just one person/thing is masculine, the adjective you use to describe the group will be masculine, as well. ‘une table’ – a table has four legs. They are actually very tan. The more you read and hear French, the most you will be able to automatically determine whether a word is feminine or masculine. If there is one man in the group, use “ils”. example: Je vous laisse le commandement. Marion Cotillard (30 September 1975) - French actress.. 19. Good news – there’s a plural “the” (les), but it stays the same for groups/things of either gender. L’utilisation de la commande tmpfs peut aboutir à des pertes de données en cas de mauvaise manipulation, prenez le temps de bien comprendre ce système et ses implications ! French words for male include mâle, masculin, masculins, sexe masculin and masculines. Firstly, it is a very long article(showing an amazing level of patience and commitment, thank u) At the cafeteria, Daniel chose an apple, a bowl of soup, and a sandwich. I got used to associating the nouns in the song with the words around them that signified their gender. Or those features that tend to distinguish male from female faces. A good amount of French do tend to have a more olive tinted skin with generally dark features. “Amie” is indeed feminine. But French people decided to use gender to be sure that the meaning is clear. If they have an “e” at the end already, the letter stays for masculine nouns as well as feminine ones. Relating to feminine and masculine, when you have a collective noun such as “Mes cousines.” Do you use feminine or masculine adjectives.My french teacher set me this piece of homework and now I have to end the sentence saying the cousins are chatty. -age, -ege, – ` eme, -ome/- ` ome, -aume, -isme, This way entire rule can be reduced to 7 masculine ending exceptions and we could say +90% A stereotypical French man has dark hair with a receding hairline that seems to make the forehead appear even higher than it already is. According to a study by McGill University, a noun’s ending indicates its gender in 80% of cases . "French Vocabulary: Physical Descriptions of People." Not that this isn’t understandable; imagine trying to change a language in such a massive way. What about you? Je me demandais si meme les Francais de souche se trompent de temps en temps du genre? Masculine. Probably a bit yes, but lots of people are trying to change that. A perfect example of a French Alpine. But, there are many other factors that make a face attractive. I have a question about masculine and feminine nouns, I just meet this: la commande (feminine) -té: la santé, la bonté; And I actually find it hard to refer to animals as “it” as a Frenchman. a decent human being), the fact that, in French, masculine nouns take precedence over feminine ones may bum you out a little. There’s a love-hate relationship between the French and Germans (the French love to hate the Germans), although they reserve their greatest animosity for les Anglo-Saxons, i.e. The things which are Glass , mirror, pen, pencil There are exceptions, but if you know these patterns, you’ll know how most adjectives change based on the gender of the noun they modify. cause then there is this abandonné and it is male adjective…..can you help me out? Which you choose will depend on whether you are speaking about a man or a woman. When talking about countries with the most smokers or highest cigarette annual consumption, France is not even on the top 10 list. In theory at least, because if there are 20 women and one man, people often use the feminine form. Freckles and dimples are also rarely singular. He suggests the Hangul alphabet is not so difficult to learn compared to other oriental languages. There are more than 5 classic traits about French women, but let’s be practical. -on: la maison, la raison. FEMININE: the great majority of words that end in -e or -ion. Notice that nationalities in French … Your site is very useful. This list may not reflect recent changes (). In a 2008 study , native French speakers were asked to determine the gender of 93 words (which it turns out were all masculine). French isn’t the only language whose nouns have genders, and masculine and feminine aren’t the only possible genders for nouns in certain other languages. If you don’t need to speak French it doesn’t matter. So, yes, this does all mean that French noun genders are completely arbitrary in many cases. These are two different words, although their meaning and origin are similar. It would be awesome if you could come back in a few months and tell us if this rule works :). When talking about certain animals in French, you refer to the male version of the species with a masculine noun and the female of the species with a feminine noun. No, actually it’s masculine. If we called that same structure “un monument” then it is masculine. I saw into a youtube vid that scandinavian languages have also a third gender, the neutral nouns. Feminine plural: contentes, Masculine singular: fatigué Yeah French is actually one of the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn. example: Share your thoughts in the comments section! The French love of classifying things and making them concise means that you couldn’t have adjectives/verbs/pronouns that agree with both genders, so one had to be chosen, and the one that was chosen was the gender that had the most power at the time: masculine. You can compare this to the way the word “actor” is being used more and more frequently to describe both males and females with this profession in the Anglophone world. One of the other ones I couldn’t quite get my head around was mon amie because I gathered that amie must be feminine but it’s not ma amie it’s mon amie – mind you I suppose ma amie would be a bit of a mouthful! Interestingly, this isn’t the case in all forms of French. No matter how you feel about gender equality, that has to make you feel good for future learners of French! The appeal of French style is everlasting, and with good reason. In French, you have a masculine “the” (le) and a feminine “the” (la). I made a wrong example, writing in English instead of French language, but still I think it shows the meaning that I wanted explain. Cheat on their partners? In the workplace. And I think Finnish has 13.Crazy :D. French is easy in comparison. On my father's side i am French and Irish. Unless you really like memorizing lists, I don’t recommend you learn these endings by heart, since the process would be extremely boring. Can you give examples? This is an un- common type for a Basque, since most of them are Atlanto-Mediterraneans and Dinarics. Alcohol, wine, almost all of the fruits in sour taste, the time you can see the sun as morning, noon, evening, and the meals we eat in day time etc. The French bulldog is a compact, muscular dog with a flat, short coat. the very same foreigners who rescued them (twice) from the dreaded Hun.France owes its liberty, independence and status as a great … , The majority of words that end in -e or -ion. And remember the French rule of masculine words always having dominance over feminine ones. In French, each profession word must correspond in gender (masculine or feminine) with the person it’s describing. I did start looking at the words seeing if I could figure out anyway to automatically decide which one is feminine and which is masculine and did start noticing that the majority of feminine words I came across mainly seemed to end in e (which is handy ‘cos Elle ends in E and Il doesn’t, and so does une), there was a few that didn’t quite fit into the list like the ones that ended with ion but this page has helped make that more clearer. 2)a large white cloth appendage hanging from their dominant hand, also known as their surrendering hand. I would like to know why the french word for water: “eau” is considered feminine when it doesn’t meet the feminine word criteria (doesn’t end with an “e” or an “ion”). The emperor’s emblem could not be feminine (no need to ask). While there is no precise data available, you can consider that you’ll be right 80% of the time if you use this simplified list. In French for instance we call that modern marvel The Eiffel Tower “La Tour Eiffel”. You might not be good at or like to memorize long lists, or you may find it easier to memorize things in a different, less straightforward way. I took French for three years in High School and have been to France nearly 15 times, as well as French speaking Quebec. That is the question you often ask yourself as a French learner. That is because it is not the object itself that requires the article “an” it is the word we choose. One easy way to keep up what you’ve learned about genders in French is to choose a word, guess if it’s masculine or feminine, then look it up online or in a print dictionary to check if you’re right. The previous list has the advantage of being exhaustive, but as French Together reader Amosnliz notes in the comment section, you can learn with a simplified, shorter list. (Nadine is so kind. For instance, in Canadian French, une médecin and une docteure are used, and doctoresse is used in Swiss and Belgian French. “Gender” is still the term used for this kind of classification, though. How do you determine the gender of new French nouns you encounter? Sorry! Many people are confused about that, so it’s okay to use the feminine or masculine form if you talk about the candy. Associating each noun with such a vivid image helps you remember its gender more easily. When it comes to learning genders in French, I feel like I’m living proof of what the McGill study found. Why? ‘Wild’ ThoughtCo. The balance of the workforce changed during World War II.As men left their positions to enlist in the military and fight in the war, women started replacing them. Did you know that ‘aigle’ (eagle) was feminine until the early 19th century, when Napoléon decided it would become its emblem (more noble than the rooster, right). Masculine singular: content But I’ve got news for you: Even native French speakers occasionally have trouble with it! I observed that some inanimate french objects that have Pair Properties (double sides) are feminine, while others are masculine. You can read about her adventures here, or feel free to stop by her website. But doesn’t it then confuse you when you speak English? A guide to the French, discussing French traits and characteristics. But first, you have to keep these few rules in mind. Feminine plural: bonnes. “Un musée”. This won’t hold true 100% of the time, but you’re much more likely to be right if you follow this rule than if you simply guess. Describing the physical features of a person in French is easy. Also,when dealing with possessive adjectives,mon is put before nouns stating with a vowel to prevent vowel clash. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/french-vocabulary-how-to-describe-people-4079201. So, if you like music, poetry, books, movies, TV series – just about anything that can let you hear/see and become familiar with French words in situ, this is a great way to supplement your French word gender knowledge. male translation in English - French Reverso dictionary, see also 'male chauvinism',male chauvinist',male chauvinism',male chauvinist', examples, definition, conjugation The problem is that a spoken word doesn’t reveal how it ends, because the final one-to-several letters are completely silent. Isn’t it?! In Hungarian, you spell everything just the way you hear it (phonetic writing) – no silent letters. When it comes to the passé composé, for example, when you conjugate a verb with the auxiliary être, the past participle must agree with the subject’s gender (and number). In this case, we want to say that he / she has... (il / elle a...) rather than he / she is... (il / elle est...). mostly if there is an e at the end, my guess is feminine. Take the word “Légume” when you say it, “Lay-g-ew-m” it sounds like it ends with “m”. If you would like to describe their personality, there is a separate lesson for that. Hello, what did you mean by “(but not after s/c¸)” in the first line of the masculine list? Maybe they have also one gender to speak about aliens!? read also: The most beautiful Hollywood actresses 22. As you can see, these categories don’t cover every subject in the French language, so this method should be used with another one to be able to guess a word’s gender with accuracy. Yeah, I have no doubts about what you say. Musée , lycée etc think museum lyceum …suggests masculine? That would probably work in most cases. However, it’s important to note that words ending in “isme” or “age” for example tend to be masculine. i have noticed that most feminine nouns end in vowels, usually “e”. Here we are with ‘un aigle’, now. This being said, there are some feminists and activists who think that feminizing a profession is sexist unto itself and that all professions in French should simply be a single word, not two separate, male and female versions. “French men pay attention to things like women wearing make-up, perfume, dressing well, and they enjoy a woman’s sensuality.” This doesn’t mean they expect women to be mere ‘eye candy,’ though. You are right, this would work quite well. Over 100,000 French translations of English words and phrases. (previous page) () It isn't that they look so very different from us Brits. – you can assume all other words are masculine? Notice that despite the first two items being feminine, because un sandwich is masculine, the entire group is referred to with ils , the masculine plural pronoun. That’s definitely something I want to work on though. So, une voile is a sail and un voile is a veil. Tu es allé(e) Choose the right one for you and you’ll get them right a vast majority of the time. The other way that I would like to suggest you all. By the way, 80% accuracy is horrible accuracy. For example, the word voile in French can either mean a sail or a veil. Lots of French words look similar but have a different gender.It depends on the ending more than on the meaning, because it’s the word itself which is feminine or masculine, not the meaning of the word. Yeah hangul is quite easy to learn. – words that end with ‘e’ are feminine except those that end with ‘ge’ or ‘me’ Féminins are different. Here are some categories of French words that are typically masculine: Here are some categories of French words that are typically feminine: For more details about these categories, you can have a look at this list or this one, which includes links to two French podcasts about how to tell what gender a word is. 1. sounds present in the language. Cléa, Hélène, Rose, and Paul like movies. But which do I use bavard (masculine) or bavarde (feminine)? Voilà – no confusion! Luckily, there are many other strategies you can use to memorize genders in French. There’s a sad little trick to the French language regarding gender: No matter how many feminine nouns you have, if there’s just one masculine one, it takes precedence. Except for non-native speakers who would inherently expect a veil, an accessory typically worn by females, to be the feminine one…. Most words with other endings are masculine. You may have heard that there is only one way to know the gender of a noun: to learn it by heart. It’s thought that as time went on and religion became more organized and, in most places, less animistic, gender seemed like a good way to keep nouns organized. Examples: généreux, généreuse; peureux, peureuse. (2020, February 18). ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Personality: The French bulldog is an even-tempered house dog that thrives on attention. Remember that if a word in a particular category has another meaning, the gender of that second meaning probably won’t be the same (we’ll talk more about this a little later on). French Together founder and genuinely nice guy Benjamin Houy has created a simplified list that’s easier to remember. I quickly picked it up, and we’d sing it every afternoon. Whether you write them as masculine or feminine depends on the noun they qualify. As you learn to speak French, you will find it helpful to be able to describe people. I Don’t Know How I Should Thank You But THANK YOU SO MUCH. It will not be long before you these words become a natural part of your French vocabulary. From rule above, maybe there is way to simplify it, all endings with ‘e’ are feminine +90%, It will get easier and easier with time :). Taking the descriptions one step further, you might want to talk about the color of a person's eyes (les yeux) or hair (les cheveux) or point out that they have freckles or dimples. For example, If you love to sing, you could sing each word with a different tone depending on its gender. It is also helpful for me to remember feminine words can end in Great post! As it happens, it ends with an “e”, so it’s feminine then? In my own experience, I find that younger generations are much more open to gender equality, not just in theory but in practice. You can also learn the ending of each word individually of course but I find that learning these masculine and feminine endings helps a lot. ThoughtCo. What color is their hair or eyes? This easy French lesson will teach you how to accurately describe the people around you. I imagine that also a slight change of position of words like this: -ité: la cité, la vélocité, la vérité; I think one of the most confusing though is remembering that un chat is masculine – why on earth is a cat considered masculine in French when pretty much every other language even English refers to it as feminine and a “feline” (although just noticed even the French word for feline is masculine!!). Male chauvinism is the belief that men are superior to women.The first documented use of the phrase "male chauvinism" is in the 1935 Clifford Odets play Till the Day I Die.. One of the nightmare of children studying French at school is the question of accents on words, but if you compare Hungarian writing and Vietnamese also, you can see that French is not so bad, in comparison. While us non-French tend to think of style, perfume, […] So it is NOT the object itself that is masculine or feminine…. Or print it out and hang it somewhere you often linger – for example, beside your bathroom mirror, by the sink where you wash the dishes, or even by your toilet. I couldn’t find that ending in the list, oiseau ends with u NORMALLY words ending with U are mas… so concerning possessive adj then it has to be mon oiseau, I think you should use Mon as there will be a vowel clash if u use ma. In addition, verb agreement is a “must” when a verb conjugated with avoir is a direct object. Plus you’ll get the added benefit of the input of possibly great literature, depending on what you chose. In 1 minute of speech you are likely to use many 10s of nouns, and thus you have to accept that unless you have memorized the gender of vast numbers (thousands) of words, you will not be able to avoid sounding like a foreigner. Some of the most popular are: You’ve probably come across lists of French vocabulary with a definite or indefinite article in front of each word. Besides that, this a good strategy for beginners, who will sound foreign no matter what anyway. Pay attention when you watch, read, and listen to French. For example, in German, there’s a third gender: neuter. You could probably master hangul in less than a week. https://www.thoughtco.com/french-vocabulary-how-to-describe-people-4079201 (accessed February 25, 2021). Read 13 common French mistakes that’ll make you feel awkward before you use this adjective. It sometimes use “he” or “she” instead of “it”. In keeping with the salute to French women month in my eBay store, I thought I would spell out a few reasons why la femme française deserves recognition. Nevertheless his general racial classification is with the Alpine group. 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 of a chance of guessing, if you ever have to. Miranda Kerr’s face typifies the properties of feminine youthfulness, including a … Instead of saying “I can’t open the door.” I’d say “I can’t open her.” Or “the soup is hot” it’s “She’s too spicy.” “The wind is blowing hard.” to “He is blowing hard.”. Simply click on the link to listen to the pronunciation. Abandonné will be used if the noun it describes is masculine, but if the noun is feminine you’d say “abandonnée”. There’s a linguistic theory that as languages evolve, they become less complex. Yeah I also find English pronunciation quite tricky, you never know what to expect! I can’t confirm you that 90% of nouns do end with a vowel, because I would need to check out the entire dictionary, but it’s clear that there are lots of ways to determine the gender of French nouns, and the vowel rule may be one of them. Er, the grammar rule is that -eux endings are masculine; the feminine of the word would end with -euse. Menu. Why do some languages have gendered nouns, while others don’t? Actually you don’t have to learn ALL those endings… If the word ends with E it is almost certainly feminine. no they are a lot of exceptions like le the, le cafe and etc. For example the administration doesn’t use the word “mademoiselle” anymore. (source https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/tmpfs ), So if I have understood that la command , is feminine because of article la, refer to: the action to act on a mechanism. My French teachers in school made us memorize endings that are typically masculine or feminine, and that has continued to help me through my years of learning French and becoming fluent. French Bulldog information including pictures, training, behavior, and care of French Bulldogs and dog breed mixes. ‘Handsome’ all buildings apartment, museum, cinema, airport , Bus stop, Jetty , I put ma because it ended in a vowel Masculine plural: bons So, for example, orange is masculine when it’s a color and feminine when it’s a fruit. Powerful as most of the weapons knife, sword, gun, canon, missile, rocket, Examples: un étalon (a stallion), un cerf (a stag), une chatte (female cat), un chat (a male … Interestingly, while we tend to think of English as a language without genders, that’s not completely true. To remember the genders in nouns very well, I address objects and food as he or she or he/she if it’s a neuter. Nobody uses 100% of a language. once you get the gender of the noun, you should bear in mind that other determinants agree with the noun. Sure, some French men are perpetual smokers with a cigarette always on their hands, but that doesn't justify the stereotype that majority, if not all, French men are heavy smokers. But before you do, here’s how to easily know the gender of French words. For example: Masculine singular: triste How to know the gender of French nouns with 80% accuracy, Other ways to learn and remember the gender of French words, How to learn and practice French noun gender. Adjectives don’t have a gender as such, but their ending depends on the gender of the noun they describe. Let me just say first off that i am American. https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/musée/53378. -œur: la sœur, la mœur (but le cœur); Still, whether there’s logic to them or not, genders are a part of the French language and knowing them is essential when it comes to speaking and writing correctly. When you’re saying you’re from put “je suis” (I am) in front of your nationality. Don't forget to pick a name. Ecole is a feminine word, yet you say: Hi This Really Helped Me And I Had A Test And I Scored Highest In Class! 13 in Finnish?? And that lots of words don’t end in “e”. To answer that question and speak about height, weight, and other physical traits, you will use the following adjectives. most have slightly large eyes and quite a bit of definition in their noses and brows. – Sharp are masculin (For all other word endings: the great majority are masculine). The gender of words in French – as well as their grammatical and social implications – can be complicated. This is another strategy that has helped me quite a bit. That idea is valid for learning and bettering any language, be it one’s mother tongue or a foreign language. Which i am so envious for because i couldn't tan to save a life. I tend to do that too in English. While reading this, I simply realized there is an easier way to tell masculine from feminine nous: by checking on your list, I saw that 90% of all feminine words end with a voyelle! She has taught English and French for more than ten years, most notably as an assistante de langue vivante for L'Education Nationale. Learn how to say that someone is tall, thin, or has blue eyes in this language lesson. Although English nouns may not be gendered, people and their corresponding pronouns are. The gender of an inanimate object sounds like an impossibility to an English speaker but as is the case in the English “an igloo” vs “a house made of ice” it is not about the object but about the word chosen for that object. Other than these changes, when it comes to gender in the French language, not much has happened in terms of everyday vocabulary and grammar. Maybe I’m rationalizing my not being able to learn 100% but it’s all a fun journey! What you need to know is that the word has a gender, not the concept it represents. Don't forget that the adjective you use must agree with the noun you are describing. In spoken “legume” you’ll know it ends with an “e” because without the “e” you won’t be pronouncing the “m” at all. Feminine plural: tristes. masculine.). And there are many patterns you can use when learning it. Thank you for that! Elle n’est vraiment pas confortable.
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