Memorizing the gender of nouns referring to things is one of the most difficult parts of learning French, as assigning gender to an object or concept is unfamiliar to native English speakers. Is there any logic to this process? In many cases, it seems arbitrary, and there’s no way of guessing. Fortunately, some categories of nouns do follow logical rules.
For example, it is indeed possible to identify the gender of a country based on its ending. La France is a feminine noun because it ends in e. (Note that we say la France even though it’s a proper noun. Unlike in English, all names of countries are preceded by an article in French.)
Le nom de la France vient du mot "Franc"
The name of France comes from the word "Franc" [Frank]
Caption 3, Le saviez-vous? D'où vient le nom de la France?
Play Caption
That said, there are always exceptions. Even though it also ends in an e, le Mexique (Mexico) is masculine:
Maintenant avec leur aide, partons sur-le-champ conquérir le Mexique!
Now with their aid, let's leave at once to conquer Mexico!
Caption 29, Il était une fois: Les Amériques 9. Cortés et les Aztèques - Part 8
Play Caption
But as for countries that don’t end in an e, it’s easy! They are automatically masculine: le Canada, le Japon, le Luxembourg (Canada, Japan, Luxembourg).
Pierre Trudeau, Premier Ministre du Canada, a dit que c'était une loi de fou.
Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, said it was a crazy law.
Caption 28, Le Québec parle aux Français - Part 3
Play Caption
What about cities? Do they follow the same rule as countries? Not exactly. The Académie Française (the official French language watchdog, if you will) doesn’t give a definite answer, noting that people tend to prefer masculine although feminine is often used in literary contexts.
In the video below, we can tell that Paris is masculine because of the masculine past participle traversé (intersected):
Car Paris était traversé à l'époque par un aqueduc
For Paris was intersected at the time by an aqueduct
Caption 39, Voyage dans Paris Le Treizième arrondissement de Paris - Part 2
Play Caption
French speakers often get around the gender ambiguity by using the expression c’est (it’s), which always requires a masculine agreement. Instead of saying Paris est belle or Paris est beau (Paris is beautiful), Sophie uses the phrase c’est + masculine to describe Paris:
C'est beau Paris comme ça.
Paris is beautiful like this.
Caption 1, Sophie et Patrice Paris, c'est gris
Play Caption
The gender of languages is much more clear-cut. All languages are masculine, from le français (French) to le thaï (Thai):
Je crois que le français est une langue géniale.
I believe that French is a great language.
Caption 11, Allons en France Pourquoi apprendre le français?
Play Caption
Note, however, that if you say "the French language" or "the Thai language" instead of just "French" or "Thai," you have to use the feminine, because the word langue (language) is feminine: la langue française, la langue thaïe.
Most foreign words are also masculine, in particular sports names and terms borrowed from English. It’s a simple matter of putting a masculine article like le (the) in front of the loanword:
Il aime le football.
He likes soccer.
Caption 33, Lionel L Les liaisons et le h aspiré
Play Caption
On the other hand, native French sports terms are either masculine or feminine. For example, we have two words for “bicycle”: le vélo, which is masculine, and la bicyclette, which is feminine.
Tu peux faire du vélo
You can ride a bike
Caption 31, Amal et Caroline Le Parc de la Villette
Play Caption
Most inanimate nouns follow no predictable pattern when it comes to gender. When we talk about feelings, for example, we say le bonheur (happiness) but la joie (joy):
Y a de la joie. On est avec les petits.
There's good cheer. We are with the little ones.
Caption 45, Actu Vingtième Fête du quartier Python-Duvernois
Play Caption
C'est quand le bonheur?
When is happiness?
Caption 9, Cali C'est quand le bonheur
Play Caption
To complicate things further, some words take both genders, and their meaning changes depending on whether they're masculine or feminine (we discuss this at length in our lesson One Word, Two Genders). For example, un livre is "a book," but une livre is "a pound":
L'extérieur d'un livre s'appelle la couverture.
The outside of a book is called the cover.
Caption 4, Manon et Clémentine Vocabulaire du livre
Play Caption
Une livre équivaut à environ quatre cent cinquante-quatre grammes.
One pound is equal to around four hundred fifty-four grams.
And there is a small group of noun pairs that have slightly different meanings in the masculine and feminine that aren't conveyed in English. For example, the words an and année both mean "year," but the masculine an emphasizes a point in time or a unit of time, while the feminine année stresses duration:
Un manuscrit de mille deux cents ans
A one thousand two hundred year old manuscript
Caption 9, Télé Lyon Métropole Un manuscrit vieux de 1200 ans découvert à Lyon
Play Caption
Ça fait des années et des années qu'ils cherchent à être logés.
For years and years they've sought housing.
Captions 35-36, Actus Quartier Devant la SNCF
Play Caption
Whether you’ve been studying French pendant des années (for years) or you’ve only just begun, with practice, remembering the gender of nouns will become easier. Thank you for reading the final lesson of this series!
Let's have a listen to Cali's beautiful tune "C'est quand le bonheur", paying special attention to this line:
Il paraît que vous faiblissez devant les hommes bien habillés
It appears that you swoon for well-dressed men
Caption 22, Cali - C'est quand le bonheur
Play Caption
Do you hear a "z" sound sneaking its way in between les and hommes, such that we hear "les-Zhommes"? You might also notice an "n" sound between bien and habillés, such that we hear "bien-Nhabillés."
What you are hearing are examples of liaison, which often happens when the (usually silent) final consonant of one word can be heard pronounced at the beginning of the following word, if the following word begins with a vowel or a mute h (learn more about the distinction between "mute h" and "aspirated h" here).
In most cases, the sound produced by liaison is very straightforward. In the Cali song, for example, the n of bien tacks right onto habillés. Simple! As is the first liaison we hear in the next line of the song:
Je suis tendu, c'est aujourd'hui que je viens vous offrir ma vie
I am tense, today is the day I am coming to offer you my life
Caption 23, Cali - C'est quand le bonheur
Play Caption
We hear a liaison in "c’est-Taujourd’hui." The final consonant of c'est, t (which we usually don't hear in French), binds with the vowel sound at the beginning of aujourd'hui.
But liaison doesn't always result in the sound you might expect. The next liaison in the line is in vous offrir. As in the case of les hommes, we have a preceding word that ends in an s (generally not pronounced in French) rendering a "z" sound that binds to the next "vowel-starting" word, resulting in "vous-Zoffrir."
A final s is not the only consonant that renders a "z" sound in liaison; the same is true for a word ending in -x. Let’s return to Cali and his romantic vieux amants (with our handkerchiefs close by):
Car qui mieux que ces vieux amants, sait qu'on perd l'amour...
Because who knows better than those old lovers that you lose love...
Caption 35, Cali - C'est quand le bonheur
Play Caption
As you can hear, Cali is singing of "vieux-Zamants"; the final x in vieux, usually silent, renders a "z" sound at the beginning of amants.
Another case where a consonant produces an unexpected sound in liaison involves words ending in -d. Here, the liaison carries over not as a "d" sound, but a "t" sound.
Here's an example concerning Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer who was the basis for Nicolas Cage's character in the movie Lord of War:
L'un des hommes les plus recherchés au monde,
One of the most sought-after men in the world,
finalement arrêté dans un grand hôtel de Bangkok.
finally arrested at a big hotel in Bangkok.
Captions 5-6, Le Journal - Viktor Bout
Play Caption
Did you catch where Bout was arrested? Not in a "grand-Dhôtel," but a "grand-Thôtel."
As you expose yourself to more authentic French, you will become accustomed to liaison and start to get a feel for where it does, and doesn't, belong. It's a tough subject to get a full handle on, and it's not uncommon to hear native French speakers adding a liaison where it "technically" shouldn't exist, or vice versa.
Here is an interesting article on liaison from ThoughtCo.com:
https://www.thoughtco.com/learn-proper-french-pronunciation-liaisons-4083657
And another, from the Académie Française:
Some French adjectives change their meaning depending on whether we put them before or after the noun they modify. For example, in Le Journal's video Les microcrédits, we learn about a fellow who realizes his dream of opening a business. This pauvre homme (poor, as in "pitiable," man) had spent years doing nothing every day. But, because he was also an homme pauvre (poor, as in "penniless," man), he qualified for a microcredit loan, and is now a proud restaurateur!
Il a réussi à monter sa propre pizzeria, il y a maintenant trois mois.
He succeeded in opening his own pizzeria, just three months ago.
Caption 3, Le Journal - Les microcrédits
Play Caption
Sa propre pizzeria means it's his alone, but if he wants customers to keep coming back, he'd better make sure it's also a pizzeria propre (a clean pizzeria)! As you can see, if placed in front of the noun, propre signals ownership; if placed after, it indicates cleanliness.
We hear another interesting example when rugby-player-turned-singer Cali sings the romantic ballad "C'est quand le bonheur?"
Car qui mieux que ces vieux amants, sait qu'on perd l'amour
Because who knows better than those old lovers that you lose love
Caption 35, Cali - C'est quand le bonheur
Play Caption
You may notice that Cali does not mention anyone's age; ces vieux amants, "those old lovers," refers to lovers who have experienced long-lasting love. They might be in their twenties or in their eighties—we don’t know. If Cali had placed the adjective vieux (old) after the noun amants (lovers), then we'd know that he meant elderly lovers (who, for all we know, met last week at bingo). So, amants vieux would indicate their age, while vieux amants indicates the duration of their love.
Dropping in on the Paris Poetry Fair, we hear:
Antonin Artaud, grand homme de théâtre,
Antonin Artaud, famous playwright,
grand poète du vingtième siècle...
famous poet of the twentieth century...
Caption 9, Marché de la Poésie - Des poètes en tout genre
Play Caption
Notice that grand, placed before the noun, means "famous" or "great"—quite different from when it appears after the noun. Un homme grand means a tall man—a man of physically grand proportions. Can you spot any poètes grands (tall poets) among the aspiring grands poètes (great poets) at this Paris Poetry Fair?
Did you see Le Journal's piece about teen use of marijuana?
Selon lui, certains signes devraient alerter vite les parents.
According to him, certain signs should quickly alert parents.
Caption 24, Le Journal - Cannabis en hausse chez les jeunes
Play Caption
This specialist talks about certains signes (certain, as in "some specific," signs). But are these also signes certains (certain, as in "definite, unquestionable," signs)? Watch the video and decide for yourself!
Keep an eye out for these and other adjectives that change their meaning depending on where they sit!
Extra credit: Certain language sages have noted that, generally speaking, these types of adjectives take a more figurative meaning when placed before a noun, and a more literal one when placed after. Can you see what they mean?
Spanish
German
Italian
Chinese
English
English 
Deutsch
Español
Français
Italiano
