How do you pronounce ville (city) and fille (daughter)? In all logic, the pronunciation should be the same, but is it? The French language has its idiosyncrasies that make learning interesting and challenging at times. Words like ville, fille, fil, fils (city, daughter, thread, son) have their own stories to tell. Are you ready? 

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Words ending in -ille (with a double ll), such as brille (shines) and fille (girl/daughter), follow a specific pronunciation rule. The -ille sound is roughly equivalent to the sound “ee-yuh” in English, as in “giddy-up."

Listen to Sam, who sees the sunny side of life in this video, and pay attention to the way he says brille:

Le soleil brille dehors.

The sun is shining outside.

Caption 17, Extr@ Ep. 9 - Du boulot pour Sam et Nico! - Part 1

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Most words ending in -ille end with same “ee-yuh” sound. Hence, it’s no surprise to hear that brille (shines) rhymes with fille (girl/daughter):

Sa fille lui expliqua et lui demanda conseil.

His daughter explained it to him and sought his counsel.

Caption 42, Contes de fées Le roi grenouille - Part 1

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However, you guessed it, there are exceptions! No need to panic, though, as there are only three: mille, tranquille, ville (thousand, tranquil, city). In these words, the -ille is pronounced differently, like “eel” in English. (Note, however, that the word for "eel," anguille, rhymes with fille!)

Listen to the way mille, tranquille, and ville are pronounced in the following videos:

Notre amour brillera de mille feux

Our love will shine a thousand fires

Caption 10, Alsace 20 Colonel Reyel en session live acoustique!

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L'avantage, c'est qu'on peut s'y promener de façon vraiment tranquille

The advantage is that you can walk here in a really tranquil fashion

Caption 17, Antoine La Butte-aux-Cailles

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Nous sommes maintenant dans la vieille ville de Chartres

We are now in the old town of Chartres

Caption 6, Voyage en France La Ville de Chartres

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If a word ends in -ile, with a single l, this is no longer an issue, as you simply sound the l as you would normally.

Et des automobiles qui se suivent en file et défilent

And of automobiles that follow in line and drive past

Caption 15, Il était une fois: Les découvreurs 9. Galilée - Part 1

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The feminine noun la file (line) has a masculine homophone, le fil (thread/wire), with no e at the end. They both sound the same but mean different things:

la prêtresse grecque qui déroula son fil

the Greek priestess who unravelled her thread

Caption 9, d'Art d'Art "La mélancolie d'une belle journée" - Chirico

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In the plural form, le fil becomes les fils (threads/wires), and they share the same pronunciation since the s in the plural is always silent:

Bon, enfin. -Et les fils?

Well, anyway. -And the wires?

Caption 1, Sophie et Patrice Les lampes de Sophie - Part 2

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So far so good. However, the word fils has another trick up its sleeve! Les fils (threads/wires) could also be les fils (sons). Fortunately, these two words are easy to tell apart as they have a different pronunciation. When talking about les fils (sons), the l is silent while the final s is pronounced.

Il transmit à ses fils tout ce qu'il possédait.

He passed on to his sons everything he possessed.

Caption 5, Contes de fées Le chat botté - Part 1

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Furthermore, le fils (the son) also ends in a sounded s, even though it’s singular:

Il cherche son fils à l'école.

He looks/is looking for his son at school.

Caption 9, Farid et Hiziya Chercher et trouver

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The only way to tell how to pronounce fils—and whether it's referring to threads, wires, or sons—is through context. 

Merci mille fois (many thanks) for following le fil (the thread) of this newsletter!

Like many other types of nouns, nouns referring to animals often have both male and female versions, and sometimes even separate names for each gender. Many of them, however, are exclusively masculine or feminine, as we'll see in this lesson.

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Nouns referring to animals work in a comparable way to those referring to people. The most common way to feminize a noun is to add an -e at the end, and, in many cases, double the final consonant, as in un chien/une chienne (a male dog/a female dog). Note that whenever you double a final consonant, the normally silent consonant (like the -n in chien) becomes pronounced, as you can hear in the example below: 

Certains noms masculins vont doubler leur consonne finale. Un chien donne... -une chienne, deux "n", "e". Et un chat donne une chatte, deux "t", "e".

Some masculine nouns will double their final consonant. "Un chien" [dog] gives... -"une chienne," two "n's," "e." And "un chat" [a cat] gives "une chatte," two "t's," "e."

Captions 25-27, Manon et Simon - Le masculin et le féminin

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On a side note, you may want to exercise caution when using the words chatte and chienne, as they can both be offensive terms referring to women.

Here is another example of a noun that changes spelling and pronunciation in the feminine form. The word for "lion" follows the same pattern as chien/chienne:

Tu as vu? Le papa lion et la maman lionne se suivent partout.

Did you see? The dad lion and the mom lioness follow each other everywhere.

Caption 23, Les zooriginaux - Léa jacta est - Part 1

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On the other hand, some animal nouns ending in -n don’t double their final consonant in the feminine, as in un lapin/une lapine (male/female rabbit), but the change in pronunciation still applies. Pay attention to the nasal -in sound in this fairy tale video:

Il y attrapa un beau lapin gras et le mit dans sa bourse.

He caught a nice fat rabbit there and put it in his purse.

Caption 25, Contes de fées - Le chat botté - Part 1

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Likewise, un renard (a fox), with a silent d, doesn’t have a double consonant in the feminine, but the d will be pronounced: une renarde. 

Le renard femelle adulte s’appelle la renarde.

An adult female fox is called a vixen.

Sometimes, in addition to the -e ending, there are some unexpected spelling changes in the feminine, as in un loup/une louve (male/female wolf):

Par exemple, un loup donne... -une louve.

For example, "un loup" [a male wolf] gives... -"une louve" [a female wolf].

Caption 53, Manon et Simon - Le masculin et le féminin

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As in un prince (a prince) and une princesse (a princess), some animal nouns take the suffix -esse in the feminine:

Un âne? -Une ânesse. -Bien!

"Un âne" [a donkey]? -"Une ânesse" [a jenny]. -Good!

Caption 41, Manon et Simon - Le masculin et le féminin

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In short, there are diverse ways to feminize an animal noun. However, many animals have separate names for male and female specimens, as in English. For example: une vache/un taureau (a cow/a bull).

Et là on voit déjà si c'est une vache ou des taureaux [sic: un taureau]? -Là, c'est une femelle.

And can we already tell here if it's a cow or a bull? -Here, it's a female.

Caption 43, Lionel à la ferme

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Male and female animal names can be quite specialized and hard to remember. If you don’t know the special name for a female animal, you can do what Automne does in the video below and refer to her as, for example, la maman cochon (the mommy pig) or le cochon femelle (the female pig) instead of the more technical term la truie (the sow). (The term cochonne actually exists, but usually it means something entirely different! It’s a way of insulting a sloppy human, or "a pig"—une cochonne for females and un cochon for males.)

Y a même le bébé de la maman cochon.

There's even the mommy pig's baby.

Caption 56, Lionel et Automne - Playmobil

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Fortunately, there is no need to be technical in everyday situations. If gender is not important or unknown, we tend to use the generic masculine, like the couple does in the video below:

Premièrement, le chat met des poils partout.

First, the cat sheds fur everywhere.

Caption 8, Marie & Jeremy - Le chat

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In fact, most nouns referring to animals don’t have feminine and masculine versions—they only come in one gender, assigned arbitrarily regardless of the sex of the animal. In this case, you will need to memorize the gender of the animal along with its name as there is no logic or way of guessing.

For example, some insects, like une mouche (a fly), are always feminine. Some rodents are feminine, as in une souris (a mouse), while others are masculine, as in un écureuil (a squirrel). Some snakes are masculine, as in un serpent (a snake), or feminine, as in une vipère (a viper). Some birds are feminine, as in une hirondelle (a swallow), and some are masculine, as in un perroquet (a parrot).

In the video below, apart from le lion, all the names of the endangered species—la panthère (panther), la girafe (giraffe), l'autruche (ostrich), and l'hyène (hyena)—are feminine in gender, but don't necessarily refer to individual females: 

Certaines espèces ont quasiment disparu, telles que la panthère, autruche, hyène, girafe et lion.

Some species have almost disappeared, such as the panther, ostrich, hyena, giraffe, and lion.

Captions 27-30, Nader Fakhry - À la recherche des derniers éléphants - Part 1

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As these nouns only have one grammatical gender, you will need to specify the sex of the animal with the term mâle (male) or femelle (female). In the documentary below, the speaker refers to une panthère femelle (a female panther):

Malgré la présence d'une panthère femelle juste à côté...

Despite the presence of a female panther right next door...

Caption 20, Le Journal - Espèces en voie de disparition

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There you have it! We’ve explored some of the grammatical quirks and intricacies of the animal kingdom. Remember that not all animal names have a masculine and feminine counterpart, but only a single grammatical gender just like nouns referring to objects, which will be the topic of our next lesson. So stay tuned!