Learn French Language Guide - Learn French Grammar

French Nouns:

In many respects, French and English share many similarities. In many others, they do not.  One of the most important differences is that all nouns in French, like in other romance languages, have a gender -- either masculine or feminine. This has important consequences as words referring to the noun in French are affected by this quality  (adjectives, participles, etc…).

What are the rules to determine if a word is masculine or feminine in French?

There are several useful tricks:

Step 1: look at the determiner.  That is, the short word that precedes the noun.

If the determiner is un, le, du, or ce, then the French word is masculine.

If the determiner is une, la, de la, or cette, then the French word is feminine.

Step 2:  What if there is no determiner?

Generally, you can use the rule below.  It covers many cases.

A French noun is masculine if it ends in:

-age (fromage/cheese)
-ment (moment/moment)
-eau (ruisseau/spring)
-phone (téléphone/telephone)
-scope (téléscope/telescope)
–isme (capitalisme/capitalism)

A French noun is feminine if it ends in:
-tion (condition/condition)
-sion (persuasion/persuasion)
-té (volonté/will)
-ette (tablette/tablet)
-ance (endurance/endurance)
-ence (violence/violence)
-ie (scie/saw)
-ure (sciure/wood shavings)
-ode (cathode/cathode)
-ade (promenade/walk)
-ude (solitude/solitude)

You can usually guess at the feminine form of a French word by adding an e at the end of the masculine form.

Examples:

un patient – une patiente / (a patient)

déterminé – déterminée / (determined)

But there are many, many exceptions in French. In some cases, the femine form of a noun is nothing at all like the masculine: (cheval/stallion, jument/filly).

Plural Nouns in French:

Like English nouns, most French nouns can be written in the plural form by adding an (s) to the end of the word: chat/chats (cat/cats); voiture/voitures (car/cars).

There are however several classes of exceptions in French:

1)     words that end in –s, -x, -z.

prix/award price, poids/weight, nez/nose.

The spelling of these words does not change between the singular or plural.

2)     words that end in -al, -ail, -au in the singular end in -aux in the plural.

Examples:

vitrail – vitraux / stained glass window(s)

général – généraux / general(s)

tuyau – tuyaux / pipe(s)

Notable exceptions that end with s in the plural: bal – bals / ball(s), carnaval – carnavals carnival(s), festival – festivals / festival(s), récital – récitals / recital(s), portail – portails portal(s).

3)     words that end in -eu or -eau in the singular end in -x in the plural.

Examples:

neveu – neveux / nephew(s)

eau – eaux / water(s)

4)     The following nouns that end in ou in the singular end in x in the plural:

bijou – bijoux / jewel(s), caillou – cailloux / stone(s), chou – choux / cabbage(s), genou – genoux / knee(s), hibou – hiboux / owl(s), joujou – joujoux / little toy(s), pou – poux / louse(s)