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
To make a PLURAL in French,
there are 3 different rules
The first rule is, for most words, add “s”
just like English, except the s will be silent
Also, don’t forget the change le/la to les
So, the plural of la fille is ….
la fille –> les filles
pronounced : la feey –> lay feey
What is the plural for
le garçon?
le garçon –> les garçons
The second rule is
words that end in “u” usually add “x”
the x is also silent
Plural of le bateau?
le bateau –> les bateaux
Plural of l’oiseau
l’oiseau –> les oiseaux
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
la femme
la femme –> les femmes
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
le chapeau (the hat)
le chapeau –> les chapeaux
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
la maison
la maison –> les maisons
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
le diner
le diner –> les diners
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
la valise
la valise –> les valises
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
le chapiteau (big-top tent)
le chapiteau –> les chapiteaux
”s” or “x” to make the plural?
la guerre
la guerre –> les guerres
To say “there is a…”, you say “il y a un/une…”
For example, There is an elephant would be
Il y a _____ elephant.
Il y a un elephant.
There is a cat.
Il y a un chat.
There is a bird
Il y a un oiseau.
There is a table.
Il y a une table.
There is a cat on the table.
sur la table
Il y a un chat sur la table. Mais non!!!
To say “there are some… “ you say
Il y a des… (and the nouns will be plural)
For example, “there are some cats” is…
Il y a des chats.
How do you say
“There are some cats at my house” (chez moi)
Il y a des chats chez moi.
Really? How many cats are there at your house?
How do you say
“There are 5 cats at my house”
Il y a cinq chats chez moi.
Cinq chats?! Mais non!
(Five cats? Oh no!)
Ah oui!
How do you say
“There are some cats on the table”
Il y a des chats sur la table.
That’s bad! C’est mal!
How many cats are there on the table?
How do you say
“There are only two”
Il y a seulement deux.
How about dogs? The word for dog is
chien
Do you like it is “un chien” or “une chien”?
un chien
how would you say
“the large dog” and “the small dog”
(hint: large is “grand”)
le grand chien
le petit chien
how about “the dogs”?
les chiens
how about
“there is a dog on the table”
“il y a un chien sur le table”
ça, c’est insupportable!
To say “there isn’t….” you need 2 extra words:
_________ and _____________
ne …. pas
“ne” goes before “y”, and it get’s shortened to:
n’y
which letter is missing?
“e” is replaced by an apostrophe
“pas” goes at the end of “il y a”, so the whole phrase is….
il n’y _____ _______
il n’y a pas
The nice thing about things that you don’t have,
is that you don’t need to know much about them.
For example, you don’t need to know their gender.
Instead of UN or UNE, you just say “de”.
Fix this sentence:
Il n’y a pas UN chien.
Il n’y a pas DE chien.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a un leon chez nous.
(chez nous = living with us)
Il n’y a pas de lion chez nous.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a un léopard chez nous.
Il n’y a pas de léopard chez nous.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a un serpent chez nous.
Il n’y a pas de serpent chez nous.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a une vache chez nous. (cow)
Il n’y a pas de vache chez nous.
“de” even works with plurals.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a des chiens chez nous.
Il n’y a pas de chiens chez nous.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a des souris chez nous. (mouse)
Il n’y a pas de souris chez nous.
Make this sentence negative:
Il y a des punaises chez nous. (bedbugs)
Il n’y a pas de punaises chez nous.
There is only one time “de” can change in
“Il n’y a pas de…”
Here is an example that needs to change:
Il n'y a pas de elefants chez nous.
Can you guess what the change is and why?
Il n’y a pas d’elefants chez nous.
The change happens because it’s easier to say
d’elefants
and harder to say
de elefants
