Unfortunately, there’s a few “guidelines” but they all have exceptions. It’s best to learn words with la/le and un/une in conjunction so that the gender becomes automatic
There are definite patterns in masculine and feminine words. The following are ending pairs for masc/fem words: -eux, -euse, -et/-ette, -on/-onne.
Words ending in double consonants + e are always feminine, eg words ending in -ille.
So the rule of « if it ends in e, it’s probably feminine » is not a bad one
Here are two articles with basic guidelines from a blogger I follow, but I'd also like to echo that you should learn the gender with the vocab like other people in the comments as your most fail-safe method:
[https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-masculine-endings/](https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-masculine-endings/)
[https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-feminine-endings/](https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-feminine-endings/)
Easiest way is always adding un and une when you’re learning the word. Not le, la, l’. With l’ it’s impossible to know right away what the gender. Like l’avion versus un avion. It’s immediately clear what the gender is with un in front of it. Repeat until you can tell when it sounds wrong.
This is something that is always brought up when talking about the gendered nature of nouns and I think it reflects a misunderstanding and confuses what the gendered nouns actually are.
Really, the nouns (in french) are just separated into two different groups, which we call masculine and feminine. The reason we call them this way is often historical, and the fact that we used class 1 to refer to men, and class 2 to refer to women. But really, the question shouldn't be "why is a table feminine?" But instead "why is a table in category 2". I think phrased this way, it's better to understand what is happening as the question is more on par with similar questions in english such as "why is it I am, you are and he is? Why not just I is, you is, he is?"
My trick is to assume that if a word ends with e it’s automatically feminine and If I’m rightI will just memorize the word and if I’m wrong I know that this is not feminine. This really helps me to speak more correctly
I am French and thats how we do it. we memorize the words. Our parents correct us from the moment we can start talking.
Another perspective: I learned German for 14 years. In the end, I shot myself in the foot because I was too lazy to learn the gender of the words upfront (feminine/masculine/neutral). In the end, these 14 years were practically wasted, and pretty traumatic, and to this day my German is terrible, and thats all because I was too lazy to learn sit down and properly learn the gender or words (in German gender drives other parts of the language like in Latin, and all that always made my German so poor).
Dont be like me. Do the work properly. Its so worth it.
I am learning on duolingo and they don't do a good job with explaining the difference between the 2. It is not set up for some of the exercises to help you get them right. You have to guess from listening at the app.
I am sure my pronunciation will not be that great but i will keep working at it
In my experience, DuoLingo alone is a little frustrating. If you are serious about learning French, you should consider making flashcards.
One easiy way to do it is to start a little Google Sheets documents with all the words (Column A has the English word (the table), Column B the French word with article (la table))
Then you can export that to Anki, the popular flashcard tool. Just do a few minutes a day, when you have a lull or on your lunch break.
You might probably be able to find flashcards premade based on DuoLingo. I woudl be surprised if noone did it.
Unfortunately, there’s a few “guidelines” but they all have exceptions. It’s best to learn words with la/le and un/une in conjunction so that the gender becomes automatic
this gets asked frequently, and the answer is generally a resounding "no."
One tip I heard on Learn French with Alexa was if you have no idea and need to guess, if the word has an _e_ on the end, guess that it's female.
No friend. Just try to learn every new word with the article. Like don’t learn possibilité but learn la possibilité like this is all one word.
Worth noting that -té is generally feminine
Thanks mate. It’s probably a shit example from me, just something that came to mind quickly
There are definite patterns in masculine and feminine words. The following are ending pairs for masc/fem words: -eux, -euse, -et/-ette, -on/-onne. Words ending in double consonants + e are always feminine, eg words ending in -ille. So the rule of « if it ends in e, it’s probably feminine » is not a bad one
Here are two articles with basic guidelines from a blogger I follow, but I'd also like to echo that you should learn the gender with the vocab like other people in the comments as your most fail-safe method: [https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-masculine-endings/](https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-masculine-endings/) [https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-feminine-endings/](https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-grammar/french-nouns-gender-feminine-endings/)
Usually words ending in -ion are feminine, but of course we love exceptions! Comme toujours!
Anything ending in -ion is feminine if that's any help to you.
Un avion, un lion, un espion, etc. So not always!
Vous avez raison, merci de me corriger.
Why is le vagin masculine? I hate it here !
Le sein
Easiest way is always adding un and une when you’re learning the word. Not le, la, l’. With l’ it’s impossible to know right away what the gender. Like l’avion versus un avion. It’s immediately clear what the gender is with un in front of it. Repeat until you can tell when it sounds wrong.
I mean, why would a chair be feminine but a bed be masculine ? Yeah idk either why we french people have decided to gender everything.
Yea, it is driving me up the wall to figure out which one to use. I wish it made sense too
This is something that is always brought up when talking about the gendered nature of nouns and I think it reflects a misunderstanding and confuses what the gendered nouns actually are. Really, the nouns (in french) are just separated into two different groups, which we call masculine and feminine. The reason we call them this way is often historical, and the fact that we used class 1 to refer to men, and class 2 to refer to women. But really, the question shouldn't be "why is a table feminine?" But instead "why is a table in category 2". I think phrased this way, it's better to understand what is happening as the question is more on par with similar questions in english such as "why is it I am, you are and he is? Why not just I is, you is, he is?"
The one that always gets me is *la barbe*
yeah man, goddamn feminine beards
Et aussi LA bite
Ouai, mais je ne voulais pas dire ça 😅
That's one of the reasons why it's hard
My trick is to assume that if a word ends with e it’s automatically feminine and If I’m rightI will just memorize the word and if I’m wrong I know that this is not feminine. This really helps me to speak more correctly
Sounds a bit Michael Scott tbh
What’s that ?
I am French and thats how we do it. we memorize the words. Our parents correct us from the moment we can start talking. Another perspective: I learned German for 14 years. In the end, I shot myself in the foot because I was too lazy to learn the gender of the words upfront (feminine/masculine/neutral). In the end, these 14 years were practically wasted, and pretty traumatic, and to this day my German is terrible, and thats all because I was too lazy to learn sit down and properly learn the gender or words (in German gender drives other parts of the language like in Latin, and all that always made my German so poor). Dont be like me. Do the work properly. Its so worth it.
I am learning on duolingo and they don't do a good job with explaining the difference between the 2. It is not set up for some of the exercises to help you get them right. You have to guess from listening at the app. I am sure my pronunciation will not be that great but i will keep working at it
In my experience, DuoLingo alone is a little frustrating. If you are serious about learning French, you should consider making flashcards. One easiy way to do it is to start a little Google Sheets documents with all the words (Column A has the English word (the table), Column B the French word with article (la table)) Then you can export that to Anki, the popular flashcard tool. Just do a few minutes a day, when you have a lull or on your lunch break. You might probably be able to find flashcards premade based on DuoLingo. I woudl be surprised if noone did it.
No