Why in france do they say "La france" but "Le canada"? what makes one country female and another male?

Answer 1

Hi there!

In French, all nouns -including Countries- have a gender: they are either masculine or feminine. The gender of some nouns makes sense: homme [man] is masculine, femme [woman] is feminine. But others don't: personne [person] is always feminine, even if the person is a man!

The best way to learn the gender of nouns is to make your vocabulary lists with the definite (le, la) or indefinite article (un, une).

Countries and names that end in e are usually (but not always) feminine. There are a few common patterns, but please don't use these as a way to avoid learning the genders of nouns - just learn each word as gender + noun and then you'll know them forever.

Here are some gender patterns:
http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_nouns2.htm

Here are the names of the countries of the world and their gender in French:
http://french.about.com/library/vocab/pays/bl-countries-a.htm

Important!
L'URSS, l'Argentine and l'Afrique do have a gender, but the rule is that the definite article (le, la) contracts to l' before vowels or mute h, mo matter what gender.

Just as a note: L'URSS, l'Argentine and l'Afrique are all feminine (La Afrique contracts to L'Afrique and so on)

Answer 2

This is an excellent question; I was thinking of asking a similar one about a certain country very dear to me, and its gender in English.
I don't want us to confuse anyone, so I must say that ALL country names in French language have genders, it's just that - when definite article ends with a vowel, and that is always the case in singular, and the country's name (or anyone elses, for that matter) begins with a vowel, then there is a grammatical rule according to which they put the apostrophe sign (') instead of the definite article's vowel. I guess they don't want a couple of vowels to mingle :-)))) That's why instead of 'La Argentine', they write 'L'Argentine' :-)
That rule applies for BOTH genders in the French language when the noun in question begins with a vowel, or the 'h' letter.
There are similar or same things in other Romance languages, too.

Answer 3

LA Belgique
LE Mexique

LA Zambie
LE Zimbabwe

LA Malaisie
LE Malawi

LA Kirghizie
LE Kirghizstan


etc... ok ?

LA Caroline
LE Maine

.. etc

Answer 4

I've been trying to explain to my husband for the last nine years that in french, portuguese, spanish and some other languages we follow grammar, it's female or male in this case, but i guess its hard when you have been taught only one language all your life, i've bilingual since birth its easier to learn a new languae. Where i come from first one learns a dialect than a official language everything comes natural

Answer 5

Actually in french, all countries ending in a "e" are feminine with the exception of Le Mexique. (Mexico) That rule doesn't apply for countries whose letters end in "a". It's just the way it is.

Answer 6

The mountains [in Canada] & the Freudian theory?

Answer 7

oh man, if i knew french would be much easier....

Even better some don't have genders:
L'Argentine (Argentina)
L'URSS (USSR)
L'Afrique du sud (South Africa)