to masterTo master

30 days
By Talk in French
to master
French Nouns
Gender
Whenever I ask a student what is the most difcult part about learning French there are 3
typical answers:
- French Pronunciation
- The tense
- The gender of words
Ah the infamous French gender for words. Why do we have those rules for words? Who
plays heads or tails with each word and decides that a table (une table) is feminine and a
book (un livre) is masculine. Nonsense!
Well, I feel the pain and this book tries to tackle this issue in two major ways.
1/ Understand the logic behind the gender (because yeah there is a sort of logic/patern
behind the words)
2/ Try to create some automatic reex when it comes to choosing the gender. The objective
is to develop a reex when you say the word in French.
Develop a melody for a word
French people do not memorize the gender of words. They just see it , hear it everyday and
whenever somebody says the wrong gender of a noun, people will automatically cringe and
think hey it does not seem right, it is not le table but la table. Imagine your favorite song
and you know the lyrics of by heart but suddenly the singer did not sing it in the original
version but in a diferent language. This is the same idea for gender. You have to learn the
melody of a word by associating the word with the gender automatically. I want you to
develop the same logic by creating a daily routine for 30 days. Spend 15 minutes per day by
associating a word with the right gender. I am not asking you to memorize the word itself.
Why this ebook has 600 words:
I took the 600 most frequent words from French. These 600 words apparently account for
90% in common texts. If you know all of them, you can claim yes I speak 90% French (yeah
it does not make any sense). I break it down into a 30 day drill session in order to remove
the pain for you. Learn the gender of 20 words without memorizing them, it is not something
terrible right? Of course you can even speed up the process by focusing on the word that you
really care about. If you dont want to talk about politics with your friends, then no need to
learn the word president.
But before moving on, let me show you that there is in fact a patern by learning the gender
of words. It will be useful for you whenever you want to use a word and even if you dont
know the gender at all.
Pattern
Masculine words:
Part 1 Typically masculine nouns
Nouns ending in b, c, cle, d, k, l, m, oir, p are in general masculine, but they tend to be a bit rare.
1/ New words, mostly from English or new technologies, ending in ing and isme
un parking
un mcanisme
2/ - ge:
le mange (merry go round)
un arpge (arpagio)
Exception: La Norvge (Norway)
3/ -
Example :
le caf (coffee or caf)
le canap (the sofa)
le carr (the square)
le dfil (the procession)
le supermarch (the supermarket).
Exceptions: la cl (key), la psych
4/ - ment
le gouvernement (the government)
un appartement (a flat)
le commencement (the beginning)
un abonnement (a subscription).
Exception: la jument (the mare).
5/ - eau
le bateau (the boat)
le manteau (the coat)
le chapeau (the hat)
loiseau (the bird).
Exceptions: leau (water), la peau (skin).
6/-in:
le vin (the wine)
le magasin (the shop)
le dessin (the drawing)
le chemin (the road, way)
le jardin (the garden).
Exception: la fin (the end).
7/ - on
le salon (the sitting room)
le poisson (the fish)
le garon (the boy)
le pantalon (the trousers).
Exception: la maison (the house).
8/ - s
le bus (bus)
le bas (bottom)
le plus (the plus)
Exceptions: la brebis (female sheep), la fois (time), une oasis, la souris (mouse), la vis (screw)
Part 2 Nouns that are more often masculine than feminine.
Lets say there is a stronger chance that the word is masculine.
1/ - age
le village (village)
le garage (garage)
le fromage (cheese)..
Exceptions: une image (a picture), la plage (the beach), la nage (swimming), la cage (cage), la
rage (rage)
Note that le page is a page boy, butt la page is the page of a book (or newspaper, etc.).
2/ - ier and er
le fermier (the farmer)
le boulanger (the baker)
3/ -eur
le travailleur (the worker)
un ascenseur (a lift)
le moteur (the moteur (the motor)
un aspirateur (a vacuum cleaner).
Exceptions: la douleur (the pain), la chaleur (the heat).
4/ -o
le vlo (a bike)
le zro (zero).
Exceptions: la mteo (the weather forecast), la moto (motobyke), la radio (radio)
Feminine words:
1/ Nouns of countries that end in e are usually feminine:
La France
lAngleterre
la Turquie
Exception : Le Mexique, Le Cambodge, Le Zymbabwe
2/ All the nouns ending in a double consonnante + e are usually feminine
elle, enne, emme, esse, erre, ette
la pelle (shovel)
une selle (sattle)
la chaussette (the sock)
la fillette (the little girl)
Exception: le squelette (the skeleton).
3/ - ale, c, be, fe, (but are pretty rare in French).
4/ - ace
la glace (ice cream)
la face (front).
5/ tion (simliar with English):
la situation
la question
la solution
lducation,
6- ence,
la patience
la violence
la conscience
Exception : Le silence
7/ -ance
la dance
les vacances (holidays),
8/ - be
une robe (a dress)
une aube (dusk)
Exceptions: cube, un microbe, un verbe
9/ - t
la beaut
la priorit
Exceptions: lt (summer), le pat, le ct (the side)
10/- ade
la promenade (the walk)
la limonade.
Exceptions: le grade, le jade, le stade (stadium).
11/- e
la fuse (the rocket)
une cuillere (a spoonful)
Exceptions: le lyce (the school), le muse (the museum).
11/ - erie (in partircular shop)
la boulangerie (the bakery)
la boucherie (the butchers)
la librairie (the bookshop)
12/ -re
la mre (the mother)
la manire (the manner)
Exceptions: le pre (the father), le frre (the brother), le cimetire (cemetary), larrire (the back).
13/ -ique
la boutique
la musique
Exceptions : le plastique, le moustique (the mosquito).
14/ -ine,
la cousine (cousin)
la poitrine (chest).
Exception : le magazine.
15/ -ise
la surprise
la mise (the amount you bet).
16/-ure,
la chaussure (the shoe)
la blessure (the wound)
17/ -rice, (mostly occupations)
la directrice (the female director)
une actrice (an actress), la traductrice (the female translator).
Exception: Le dentifrice (the toothpaste)
Please dont cry, and take it easy. We have the gender drill to fx this memorization issue.
And now...
The drill
How it works?
The idea is to create an automatism. So do not hesitate to listen again
and again.
1/ Print the vocabulary of the day sheet or write down the word (this
can help to memorize the word).
2/ Listen to the track Gender Drill Day X at normal speed. Listen to it 1
or 2 times
3/ Listen to the track Gender Drill Day X at slow speed. Between each
gap, repeat out loud the word. Do it 1 or 2 times.
4/ Listen to the track Gender Drill Day X at random and repeat it out
loud. Do it 1 or 2 times
5/ Test yourself. Listen to the track Gender Drill Day X quiz. Listen to
the word and try to say it before the answer.
For example:
The track: Mari
You: Un mari
The track: Un mari (the answer)
Use the vocabulary sheet of the day and check if you do it correctly. If
not straight away, do not hesitate to do it again.
Day 1:
Un homme man
Un mari husband
Une femme woman
Un Jour day
Une mer sea
Un temps time
Une Main hand
Une chose thing
Une vie life
Un oeil des yeux One eye - eyes
Une heure time
Un monde world
Un enfant child
Une fois time
Un moment time/ moment
Une tte head
Un pre father
Une flle girl
Un coeur heart
Un an year
Un homme
Un mari
Une femme
Un Jour
Une mer
Un temps
Une Main
Une chose
Une vie
Un il / des yeux
Une heure
Un monde
Un enfant
Une fois
Un moment
Une tte
Un pre
Une flle
Un coeur
Un an
Week 1 Recap:
Day 1- Day 5
Temps Mois
Chose Raison
Vie Personne
Moment Pense
Jour Affaire
Terre Doute
Mot besoin
Coup Sorte
Maison Bout
Nom Chambre
Eau Bruit
Rue Ct
Soir Ville
Here is a random selection of words. Put the right gender (e.g: Un cahier) in front of each words. Listen
the answer (track: Recap Week 1)
You can buy this tool at
talkinfrench.com/gender