👦 Masculine and feminine

📖 In short

In French every noun is either masculine or feminine, even things! The table, la table, is feminine, and the book, le livre, is masculine. Sometimes it's the opposite of Arabic: the sun, le soleil, is masculine, and the moon, la lune, is feminine!

🔎 The lesson

1 People and animals

We usually add e to make the feminine: ami → amie.

un ami / une amieFriend (boy / girl)
un cousin / une cousineCousin (boy / girl)
un chat / une chatteCat (male / female)
un lion / une lionneLion / lioness

2 Special changes

Masculine	Feminine	Meaning
un danseur	une danseuse	Dancer (man / woman)
un chanteur	une chanteuse	Singer (man / woman)
un acteur	une actrice	Actor / actress
le père	la mère	Father / mother

3 A different gender from Arabic

le soleilThe sun (masculine in French)
la luneThe moon (feminine in French)
la porteThe door (feminine in French)
la chaiseThe chair (feminine in French)

4 Clues to help you

Nouns ending in -tion are usually feminine: la récréation. Nouns ending in -ment are usually masculine: le vêtement. But the surest way is to learn the article with the noun.

💡 Watch out!

If you're not sure of a noun's gender, look it up in a dictionary: you'll find n.m. beside it for masculine and n.f. for feminine.

🧩 Test yourself

1 What is the feminine of un ami?

2 Is le soleil masculine or feminine?

3 What is the feminine of un chanteur?

→ Definite and indefinite articles ← Plurals in French