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Learn French Online – Lesson 3 – Gender of Nouns and Articles
In French, every noun has a gender. It’s either masculin (male) or féminin (female).
You can tell the gender of a noun by the article that comes before it.
The English a will be un (m) or une (f).
The English the will be le (m) or la (f).
Examples:
| une tasse (f) a cup un poisson (m) la nuit (f) la journée (f) le soleil (m) la lune (f) la voiture (f) |
le camion (m) the truck une banane (f) un citron (m) la chaussure (f) le sac (m) la terre (f) le moteur (m) |
How do I know the gender of a French noun? I learn the noun with its article.
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
What is this?
C’est une tasse. (f)
It’s a cup.
For people, the grammatical gender is the same as the gender of the person.
| un homme a man un garçon |
une femme a woman une fille |
For animals, it depends.
Some animals have a “general gender” by which we refer to them.
We always say:
| un zèbre (m) a zebra |
une girafe (f) a giraffe |
If we want to be specific about the gender of the animal, we will add mâle or femelle to the noun.
un mâle
a male
une girafe mâle
a male giraffe
une femelle
a female
une girafe femelle
a female giraffe
Other animals have a different or modified noun for the female:
| un lion a lion un chat un chien un mouton un cochon |
une lionne (f) a female lion une chatte (f) une chienne (f) une brebis (f) une truie (f) |
More Basic French Lessons
- Previous Lesson – Greetings Part 2 In this basic French lesson we learn how to greet someone we know and are familiar with. These greetings are a little different than the ones we would use with someone we just met.
- Next Lesson – The L apostophe Learn all bout the L apostrophe as we expand on French articles and the gender of nouns and articles
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Leave A Reply (138 comments so far)
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Jenna
11 years agoThis is such a wonderul site that breaks down the French language so it is easily understood. And its free? Makes it that much better!
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Vinusim
11 years agoJ’adore cette website baucoup……………..
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I loved the site congratulations, I’m learning a lot from him, I am Brazilian and my dream is to learn French, I am studying English I speak enough.
grateful.J’ai adoré le site félicitations, j’apprends beaucoup de lui, je suis brésilien et mon rêve est d’apprendre le français, je suis étudiant en anglais, je parle pas assez.
reconnaissant. -
osama
11 years agoExcellent view of the lessons since she fascinated by hearing and consideration. Thank you very much for the view and convenience in explanation.
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Lisa
11 years agoreally great lesson!!! I have been working out of a book and getting increasingly bored!! The way this French is presented is very engaging
The guy you work with goes nice and slow and really explains everything, It feels very personal. I think the only way you could make it better is to have a video of the guy speaking to you (just because if feels so one on one). Thank you! cant wait to move onto the next lessons. -
Bravo
11 years agoI absolutely LOVE this site!! The lessons are so easy to understand. crystal clear and I love how the man giving the lesson takes the time to really let you know why things are what they are… it’s awesome! feels very one on one.. not like rosetta stone that’s soooo robot-like.
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moi
11 years agoi like the presentation.It enables to simplify the pronounciation
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i did like the way things are explained until now. It goes smooth from the initials and gets you in love to learn french and develops a believe in you that the french language is easy to learn.
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Hakob Mnatsakanyan
11 years agoDear Sirs,
I am beginner for French. thanks for your lessons, those are very useful.!!!
My question is about typing of some French symbols, such as: oe, a with `chapeur` and etc. help me please.
thanks in advance.
Excellent view of the lessons since she fascinated by hearing and consideration. Thank you very much for the view and convenience in explanation. It is really a good web site to learn French. thanks again and good job.