Now let’s study masculin and feminine for other nouns

Articles : Un, Une, Le, La, L’

When a noun is masculin it is introduced with the articles UN or LE.

• Un chien, Le chien (a dog, the dog)

When a noun is feminine it is introduced with the articles UNE or LA

• Une table, La table (a table, the table)

If a word starts with a vowel it will be introduced with L’ instead of le or la, whatever the gender.

• Une orange, L’orange (feminine)
• Un éléphant, L’éléphant (masculin)

Adjectives

If a noun is masculin, it will be described with the masculin form of an adjectif:

• Un chien –> un beau chien.

If a noun is feminine, it will be described with the feminine form:

• Une histoire –> une belle histoire.

How do we know if something is masculin or feminine?

For people it is logical, male is male, female is female. For animals and objects it is not so logical. Take a look at this list

Why should cat be masculin and turtle feminine? And sun and moon? table and chair? It’s just the case, it’s not logical.

• When you learn a noun always try to learn the gender by including an article. For example if you learn the word « Vin » (wine) you should learn that it’s masculin. So one would say

• Un vin or Le vin.

If you learn the word « Bière » (Beer) you should learn it’s feminine. So one would say

• Une bière or La bière.

Helpful statistics :

55% of French nouns are masculin

75% of French nouns ending with E are feminine.

Most French nouns ending with -isme/asme, -ment, -at, -al, -o, (sounds) are masculin

• Le fantasme, le serment, le combat, un animal, un mot.

Most French nouns ending with, -té(e), -ion, -oi, -esse, ette, are feminine.

• La loi, la vérité, la profession, la santé, la promesse, la tablette

Here are a few exercises to get used to this.