French Grammar in Context

Nouns 77

b Chose, personne

• The noun choseis feminine, but compounds including choseare all masculine. Note in
  particular quelque chose, e.g. j’ai lu quelque chose de passionnant.


• The noun personneis feminine. When it is used as a negative particle, however, it is
  masculine, e.g. personne n’est sorti= no one left.

c Collective nouns
These are nouns that refer to groups of people such as:
comité(m) committee
équipe(f ) team
foule(f ) crowd
gouvernement(m) government
peuple(m) people
police(f ) police
French usage dictates that these nouns take verbs in the singular whereas the English
equivalent can take either a singular or plural verb.
Le comité s’est réuni(NOT se sont réunis); La police est arrivée(NOT sont arrivées)

See for further information: Coffman Crocker, pp. 1–9
Ferrar, pp. 138–54
Hawkins and Towell, pp. 1–25
Judge and Healey, pp. 3–23
L’Huillier, pp. 387–409
Price, pp. 38–102
Turk and Vandaele, pp. 6–12

EXERCISES

1 Add le/laas appropriate.

a___ renseignement f___ charité k___ noix

b___ civilisation g___ problème l___ manque

c___ personne h___ baisse m___ musée

d___ bras i___ tourisme n___ français

e___ rapport j___ raison o___ patience

2 Give the plural forms of the following.

ale trou fle festival kl’écrivain

ble genou gla voie lle championnat

cle général hla voix mle château

dle pneu il’œil nle vœu

emadame jle numéro omonsieur