grammar: how to package nouns Flashcards
all nouns in French are either
___________ or _____________
Masculine (male) or Feminine (female)
This is true of most European languages (languages based on Latin, German, or Slavic). Does this have to do with male/female gender roles or hierarchy? You tell me…
Masculine nouns use _____ for “the”
le
Feminine nouns use _____ for “the”
la
Why do all European languages list masculine first and feminine second?
Huh. No idea. I could take some guesses though.
Anyway. How would you say “the father”
_____ pére
le pére – he’s masculine
well, unless she’s trans, but that’s another issue
How would you say “the mother”
_____ mére
la mére – she’s … um … female. Probably. Maybe not all that feminine.
“The girl” is ____ fille
la fille
It could be worse. In German, the word “girl” is actually neuter!
“The boy” is ____ garçon
le garçon
By the way, the little curly-cue under the “c” makes it say “s”. It’s called “cedil” and it’s so characteristic of French that people use that one character to denote the entire language.
Add “the”:
___ grandmére et ____ grandpére
la, le
“femme” means woman.
(Pronounced like fee-fi-fo-fum)
How would you say “the woman”?
la femme
So how can you tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine? For example, table, chair, or flower?
One way is to memorize each noun individually. Does this sound like a good idea? For example, table and chair are feminine, but flower is masculine.
no!
although you do have to memorize a few nouns
Here are some French nouns. Can you figure out a simple rule for their gender? Hint: look at the letters in the word.
la table le nez
la chaise la bouche
le fleur le doigt
Here are the feminines:
table, chaise, bouche
Here are the masculines:
fleur, nez, doigt
Words that end in silent “e” are almost always FEMININE
Words that don’t end in silent “e” are usually MASCULINE
So, to recap: Most nouns that end in ____ are feminine.
“e” (specifically, a silent “e”, no accent mark)
The gender of clothing, for example, has nothing to do with the gender of the wearer. What gender is each of these: cravate (cravat, tie) ceinture (belt, think: cinch) bikini jupe (skirt) minijupe boxer-short smoking (tuxedo) pyjama manteau (mantle, coat) robe (robe, dress)
la cravate la ceinture le bikini la jupe la minijupe le boxer-short le smoking le pyjama le manteau la robe
Let’s add some adjectives. In French, the adjective must have the same gender as the noun. What does that mean?
Look at the two adjectives below. Both mean “green”. Which one do you think is feminine?
vert verte
“verte” is feminine
How did you know “verte” is feminine?
Because it ends with a silent “e”!
How could you make “bleu” feminine?
Add a silent “e”:
bleue
How could you make “noir” feminine?
Add a silent “e”:
noire
So if you wanted to say “the green robe”, you would say
la robe ….
la robe verte
How about the green smoking jacket?
le smoking vert
The green bikini?
le bikini vert
The green skirt (jupe)?
la jupe verte
An interesting thing happens when you add a silent “e” onto an adjective: it means that the final consonant will get pronounced.
For example: “petit” (small) sounds like peh-tee
What does “petite” sound like?
“petite” sounds like “peh-teet”
the “t” is no longer silent
Add "petit" or "petite" before each piece of clothing la cravate la ceinture le bikini la jupe la minijupe le boxer-short le smoking le pyjama le manteau la robe
la petite cravate la petite ceinture le petit bikini la petite jupe la petite minijupe le petit boxer-short le petit smoking le petit pyjama le petit manteau la petite robe
