Nouns & gender
Every French noun is masculine or feminine — and the good news English speakers rarely hear: the ending of the word predicts the gender most of the time. Learn the endings, not ten thousand individual nouns.
Endings that say feminine
| ending | reliability | examples |
|---|---|---|
| -tion / -sion | ~99% | la nation, la décision, la télévision |
| -té | ~99% | la liberté, la qualité, la santé |
| -ette | ~99% | la baguette, la fourchette |
| -ance / -ence | ~95% | la chance, la patience (but: le silence) |
| -ure | ~95% | la voiture, la nature |
| -euse / -trice | 100% | la vendeuse, l'actrice |
| -ie | ~90% | la vie, la boulangerie (but: le génie) |
| -ée | ~90% | la journée, l'idée (but: le musée, le lycée) |
Endings that say masculine
| ending | reliability | examples |
|---|---|---|
| -age | ~95% | le fromage, le voyage (but: la page, la plage, l'image) |
| -eau | ~99% | le bureau, le couteau (but: l'eau, la peau) |
| -isme | 100% | le tourisme, l'optimisme |
| -ment | ~99% | le gouvernement, le moment |
| -oir | ~99% | le miroir, le soir |
| -in / -on | ~90% | le vin, le ballon (but: la maison, la fin) |
| consonant endings generally | ~75% | le sport, le lit, le sac |
The famous traps
| looks like | actually | remember |
|---|---|---|
| le problème | masculine | Greek -ème words are masculine: le système, le thème |
| la main | feminine | despite the consonant ending |
| le squelette | masculine | rare -ette exception |
| la nuit, la fois | feminine | high-frequency, just learn them |
| l'eau (f) | feminine | the -eau exception you drink daily |
People and animals
- Many nouns pair: le boulanger / la boulangère, l'acteur / l'actrice, le chien / la chienne.
- Some are fixed regardless of the person: la personne, la victime, le médecin (all can refer to anyone).
- Modern usage increasingly feminizes professions: la ministre, l'autrice / l'auteure.
Why gender matters beyond the article
Gender ripples through the whole sentence — article, adjective, past participle, pronoun:
Le vieux port est beau. · La vieille ville est belle.
Practical strategy
- Always learn a noun with its article: une table, never just table.
- When in doubt from the ending table above, guess masculine — there are more of them.
- In speech, l' hides the gender (l'ami / l'amie sound identical); the adjective often rescues you: un ami italien vs une amie italienne /italjɛn/.
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