French Nouns - Gender, Plural, Articles, Demonstratives

French Nouns, Articles, and Demonstratives

Gender of Nouns in French + Singular and Plural Forms

Buy French Language Tutorial as an e-book! French Language Tutorial includes more than 200 pages of grammar and vocabulary topics, sample sentences, informal ways of speaking, cultural information about France, and an overview of French pronunciation. This e-book also comes with 200+ mp3s (more than FIVE HOURS) recorded by three native speakers and FREE lifetime updates. Download the first 10 pages of French Language Tutorial (including the table of contents). NEW! The companion e-book, Informal and Spoken French, is also now available! Buy the two French e-books together at a discounted price!

Buy French Language Tutorial

For more French learning through authentic videos, I recommend Yabla French and FluentU. For audiobooks and lessons of modern French, try French Today. I've recommended some French books at Amazon, and Interlinear books are great for learning French by reading literal translations in English. Need even more French? Try the French courses at Udemy

• ← Alphabet
• French Index
• Useful Words →

French Nouns, Articles & Demonstratives / Les noms, les articles & les demonstratifs

All nouns in French have a gender, either masculine or feminine. For the most part, you must memorize the gender, but there are some endings of words that will help you decide which gender a noun is. Nouns ending in -age and -ment are usually masculine, as are nouns ending with a consonant. Nouns ending in -ure, -sion, -tion, -ence, -ance, -té, and -ette are usually feminine.

Articles and adjectives must agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify. Articles have to be expressed even though they aren't always in English; and you may have to repeat the article in some cases. Demonstratives are like strong definite articles.

Definite Articles (The)

Masculine	Feminine	Before Vowel	Plural
le lit /lə li/ the bed	la pomme /la pɔm/ the apple	l'oiseau /lwazo/ the bird	les gants /le ɡɑ̃/ the gloves

Indefinite Articles (A, An, Some)

Masculine	Feminine	Plural
un lit /œ̃̃ li/ a bed	une pomme / yn pɔm/ an apple	des gants /de ɡɑ̃/ some gloves

Demonstrative Adjectives (This, That, These, Those)

Masc.	Masc, Before Vowel	Fem.	Plural
ce lit /sə li/ this/that bed	cet oiseau /sɛ twazo/ this/that bird	cette pomme /sɛt pɔm/ this/that apple	ces gants /se ɡɑ̃/ these/those gloves

If you need to distinguish between this or that and these or those, you can add -ci to the end of the noun for this and these, and -là to the end of the noun for that and those. For example, ce lit-ci is this bed, while ce lit-là is that bed.

Plural Nouns / Les noms pluriels

To make a noun plural, you usually add an -s (which is not pronounced). But there are some exceptions:		Sing.	Plural
If a noun already ends in an -s, add nothing.	bus(es)	le bus	les bus
If a noun ends in -eu or -eau, add an x.	boat(s)	le bateau	les bateaux
If a masculine noun ends in -al or -ail, change it to -aux.	horse(s)	le cheval	les chevaux
Some nouns ending in -ou add an -x instead of -s.	knee(s)	le genou	les genoux

Exceptions: festival, carnaval, bal, pneu, bleu, landau, détail, chandail all add -s. There are only seven nouns ending in -ou that add -x instead of -s: bijou, caillou, chou, genou, pou, joujou, hibou. There are, of course, some irregular exceptions: un œil (eye) - des yeux (eyes); le ciel (sky) - les cieux (skies); and un jeune homme (a young man) - des jeunes gens (young men).

Notice that the only time the pronunciation will change in the plural form is for masculine nouns that change -al or -ail to -aux and for the irregular forms. All other nouns are pronounced the same in the singular and the plural - it is only the article that changes pronunciation (le, la, l' to les).

• ← Alphabet
• French Index
• Useful Words →