French Grammar in Context

Discover more about nouns

1 GENDER

a Words ending in -isme, -asmeand -acleare masculine, e.g. le capitalisme, le sarcasme, le

spectacle.

b Words ending in -ude, -ure, -éeare normally feminine, e.g. la solitude, la culture, la journée.

Note, however, le lycée, le musée.

c Gender of countries, regions, départementsand rivers

• Gender of countries
  These are usually masculine unless they end in -e, when they are feminine:
  le Canada la Bulgarie
  le Danemark la Chine
  le Japon la Norvège
  le Luxembourg la Thaïlande
  le Portugal la Tunisie, etc.
  Note some exceptions: le Cambodge, le Mexique, le Zimbabwe.


• Gender of regions, départementsand rivers
  They are feminine if they end in -e:
  le Languedoc la Provence
  le Morbihan la Corrèze
  le Rhin la Loire
  d Seasons, months, days of the week are masculine.
  le printemps
  janvier est un mois froid
  le dimanche

e Languages are masculine.

le français, le russe, le japonais

f Cars are feminine, following from the gender of la voiture:

une Peugeot, une Vauxhall, une Jaguar(as opposed to un jaguarof the four-legged variety)

g Professions

A number of professions used to be the province of men and this is reflected in the language,

e.g. un médecin, un professeur, un ministre, un député. The correct female forms of these can be

long-winded, formal or awkward such as une femme médecinor Madame le Ministre. Social

changes are gradually creeping into the language. La profis not uncommon, although familiar.

Canadian French has moved further down the road of feminization of language and you will

commonly find such nouns as la professeure, l’auteure, la ministre.

74 French Grammar in Context