FLC: Lesson 2 - Articles and Genders You too can learn French !
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Lesson 2 - Articles and Genders
1. Gender in French
We have a bad and a good news for you : as opposed to English, French words have
a gender. That's the bad news. The good news is that French words can have only
two genders : masculine or feminine. Unfortunately, there is an additional bad
news : the distribution of the words in the masculine and the feminine genders
does not comply to any logical rule. Therefore, the only way to know the gender
of a word is to learn it by heart!
The gender is determined by the article, either definite (the in English) or
indefinite (a/an in English).
Masculine definite article: le [leu]
Feminine definite article: la
Masculine indefinite article: un [nasal sound which can be derived from the
English sound "un" as explained in the first lesson]
Feminine indefinite article: une [?n']
The genders of the words introduced in the previous lesson are :
la/une table (the/a table)
le/un sac (the/a bag)
le/un chat (male cat), la/une chatte (female cat)
le/un bras (the/an arm)
la/une soeur (the/a sister)
la/une bouche (the/a mouth)
la/une jambe (the/a leg)
la/une lampe (the/a lamp)
la/une terre (the/a land)
la/une botte (the/a boot)
la/une langue (tongue)
le/un langage (language)
la/une chambre (room)
le/un vélo (the/a bike)
le/un jour (the/a day)
la/une nuit (the/a night)
la/une voiture (the/a car)
le/un pays (the/a country)
le/un frère (the/a brother)
le/un père (the/a father)
la/une mère (the/a mother)
la/une tête (the/a head)
la/une maison (the/a house)
la main (the/a hand)
le/un pain (the/a bread)
la/une tasse (the/a cup)
When a word begins with a vowel, the definite article that precedes the word is
contracted whatever the gender is :
une assiette (a plate), l'assiette (the plate)
un oiseau (a bird), l'oiseau (the bird)
un animal (an animal)l'animal (the animal)
une araîgnée (a spider), l'araîgnée (the spider)
une auto (a car), l'auto (the car)
Previously, we said that there was no logical rules to find out the gender of
the French words. Actually, there are some...
Professions
Almost every profession has two genders depending on whether it is a man or a
woman who is accomplishing the work. Examples :
un boulanger
a male baker
une boulangère
a female baker
un boucher
a male butcher
une bouchère
a female butcher
The following list gives the masculine and feminine form of some professions:
Driver
Masculine: un conducteur
Feminine: une conductrice
Airplane pilot
Masculine: un aviateur
Feminine: une aviatrice
Engineer
Masculine: un ingénieur
Feminine: une ingénieure
Teacher
Masculine: un professeur
Feminine: une professeure
President
Masculine: un président
Feminine: une présidente
Minister
Masculine: un ministre
Feminine: une ministre
Worker
Masculine: un ouvrier
Feminine: une ouvrière
Animals
Like professions, most animals may have both genders (male and female). As
opposed to professions, the way the female form is built does not comply to any
general rule and consequently, must be learnt by heart. The following is a list
of examples:
Cat
Masculine: un chat [sha]
Feminine: une chatte [shat']
Dog
Masculine: un chien [shi-in]
Feminine: une chienne [shièn']
Lion
Masculine: un lion [li-on]
Feminine: une lionne [li-on']
Tiger
Masculine: un tigre
Feminine: une tigresse [tigrès']
Horse
Masculine: un cheval
Feminine: une jument
Rabbit
Masculine: un lapin
Feminine: une lapine
Rat
Masculine: un rat
Feminine: une rate
Pig
Masculine: un porc, un cochon
Feminine: une truie [tr?-i]
Bovine (cow/bull)
Masculine (bull): un taureau [toro]
Feminine (cow): une vache
Donkey
Masculine: un âne
Feminine: une ânesse
As you may have noticed in the previous examples, the feminine form is often
derived from the masculine by appending an "e" to the word. This rule is
applicable in most cases and leads to a more general one : the feminine form of
nouns and adjectives is built by appending an "e" to the masculine form of the
word. This rule is general enough that you should learn it.
2. Plural articles
The plural form of the definite and indefinite articles is very simple for it
does not vary according to the gender:
Definite article: les (both feminine and masculine)
Undefinite article: des (both feminine and masculine)
Plural rule: In French, the plural form of nouns and adjectives is built by
appending an "s" (like in English). However, in many cases, this rule is not
applicable, and you will be required to learn by heart the irregular form of
plural form of these exceptions (lesson 4). Examples:
Singular: le chat
Plural: les chats
Singluar: la table
Plural: les tables
Singluar: un chien
Plural: des chiens
Singluar: une lionne
Plural: des lionnes
Singluar: un oiseau
Plural: des oiseaux
oiseau is one of these exceptions.
3. Some usual expressions
merci (thank you)
s'il vous plaît (please)
bonjour (literally "good day", means good morning/good afternoon)
bonsoir (good evening)
bonne nuit (good night)
au revoir (literally "see you again", means goodbye)
pardon (sorry)
excusez-moi (excuse me)
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