Can anyone tell me if there is a framework for working out which things are male and which are female in the French language?
Or is it as random as it seems to be?
2007-05-13 07:46:48 · 9 answers · asked by londres france 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
There no exact rule. You have to just know them which is abit mind-boggling, but then it's just like remembering extra words. After doing French for awhile you start to see patterns and also some nouns don't sound right with the wrong preceding gender. As a rough guide I suggest you visit this site:-
http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_nouns.htm
2007-05-13 07:58:17 · answer #1 · answered by charles b 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
it's heavy to begin with, but after a while you get a "feel" for whether a word is masculine or feminine.
when i lived in France it was a big time for new words entering the language via internetspeak etc (eg "le mouse"). Most were masc, but a few were fem.
I would ask my French pals how they knew whether the word was masculine or feminine if they'd never seen or heard of it before. The answer was always "it's obvious".
My best advice would be "guess, and don't worry if you get it wrong". It rarely changes the meaning of a sentence anyway. Then when people correct you, remember the correction.
2007-05-13 15:48:00 · answer #2 · answered by Mark 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
This is a really good website with some rules about gender. If you are really serious about telling the difference between both genders, then it would be worthwhile to know some of these rules:
http://french.about.com/library/weekly/bl-gender-m.htm
Hope I helped!
2007-05-13 14:56:05 · answer #3 · answered by Icobes 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There are rules but they are complex to the English way of thinking. For example nouns ending in 'ence' are feminine, except - wait for it - 'silence' which is of course not feminine and is 'le silence' No comment.
2007-05-13 14:50:25 · answer #4 · answered by ruralsouthwell 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yeah it's pretty random. French people love correcting you though, so if anything they'll be happier when you get it wrong.
2007-05-13 16:12:24 · answer #5 · answered by Goddess of Grammar 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
You just have to memorize the words you use the most.
2007-05-13 15:04:24 · answer #6 · answered by marie9 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Eeet eez how you say 'random' n'est ce pas?
2007-05-13 14:50:13 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
yeah, we call it grammatical rules
2007-05-13 14:49:42 · answer #8 · answered by Splishy 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
do not learn French - it is evil
2007-05-13 14:51:51 · answer #9 · answered by Sean JTR 7 · 1⤊ 7⤋