Search Results for: masculine feminine

Masculine or Feminine? Telling the Gender of French Nouns

September 23, 2015 by Jessica Leave a Comment

New learners of French are often unsettled or scared when they find out –very early- that every noun had a gender: masculine or feminine. I hear you say: How to know whether a word is masculine or feminine? How the hell am I supposed to tell the gender of French nouns, to guess that the word” telephone” is masculine whereas the word “television” is feminine?? Well, the bad news is that you’ll need to learn/memorise it. And therefore you’ll need to set good learning habits from the start by memorising the gender of French nouns as part as your vocabulary! The good news (because there’s … Read More →

FYW 033 : How to Tell if a French Noun is Masculine or Feminine (Part 2)

September 23, 2015 by Jessica Leave a Comment

This is the second part about how you can tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine in French! (For the first part, listen to French Your Way Podcast, episode 32). In last week’s episode, I’ve ran you through groups of words/categories which are generally masculine or feminine (eg: numbers, names of colours, trees, metals, etc were most often masculine nouns); today the categories we’ll see will be about the spelling of the words. The last letter of a French word can indeed give you a clue about its gender! I’ve also published an article about the gender of French words on my website … Read More →

FYW 032 : How to Tell if a French Noun is Masculine or Feminine (Part 1)

September 16, 2015 by Jessica Leave a Comment

New learners of French are often unsettled or scared when they find out that every French noun has a gender: it is either masculine or feminine. How to know whether a word is masculine or feminine in French? You need to learn it as part as the vocabulary and therefore create good learning habits from the start, so you build on strong bases. Plus, here are tips on how you can predict the gender of a word ! In this episode, I’ll talk about categories of nouns which tend to be either mostly masculine or mostly feminine. This should greatly help you! Vocabulary and Spelling of the French Words … Read More →

Irregular French Plurals : Masculine Words Ending in “_al”

January 6, 2015 by Jessica 1 Comment

Here is a common mistake I see among students of all levels of French, so I thought this short article would be useful, whether it is only a reminder or new to you ;-) Nouns Nouns ending in “_al” are masculine. Ex: un journal (= a newspaper) un cheval (= a horse) un animal un festival un carnaval, etc. These nouns have an irregular French plural.The plural form of these masculine nouns is generally “_aux”. Ex: un journal → des journaux un cheval → des chevaux un animal → des animaux There are a few exceptions of course : bal (= ball, dance), carnaval, chacal (= jackal, wild … Read More →

FYW 237: Telling the Gender of Nouns

April 7, 2022 by Jessica Leave a Comment

In my last newsletter and YouTube video, I asked for your input/feedback on what you struggle most with in French and I took note of your difficulties (some of which I still need to think about how to best address them.) One aspect of French grammar which came back several times was how to tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine. Listen for my best tips and use the link below for my detailed article AND free downloadable worksheet to test yourself! LINKS and RESOURCES Masculine or Feminine? Telling the Gender of French Nouns (includes free downloadable worksheet to test yourself) FYW … Read More →

FV 108 INTERVIEW: Polyglot Steve Kaufmann about language learning (Part 2)

April 16, 2020 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Interview with Steve Kaufmann, one of YouTube's most famous polyglots and co-founder of LingQ, an online platform offering language-learning courses in 14 languages. Steve has learnt around 20 (yes, 20!!!) languages in his life. Find out more about his background, how he came to learn French and, more importantly, about his method to learn a new language. This interview is a must-listen for every language student. It was fascinating to discuss language learning with Steve and compare our approaches. I hope you’ll get great tips out of it as well as a motivation boost 😊 Note: Get the … Read More →

FV 108 INTRO: Polyglot Steve Kaufmann about language learning (Part 2)

April 16, 2020 by Jessica Leave a Comment

FV 107 INTERVIEW: Polyglot Steve Kaufmann about language learning (Part 1)

April 1, 2020 by Jessica Leave a Comment

FV 107 INTRO: Polyglot Steve Kaufmann about language learning (Part 1)

April 1, 2020 by Jessica Leave a Comment

FYW 157 : Rules around French country names: why do you say EN France, AU Japon, AU Mexique?

February 7, 2018 by Jessica Leave a Comment

Did you know that French country names have a gender too? How can you tell whether they are masculine or feminine? Find out the rules behind saying where you’re at or where you’re from. After listening to this episode, French country names will have no more secret for you! Vocabulary and Spelling of the French Words mentioned in this episode La France, la Belgique, la Russie, la Chine, l’Italie, l’Australie, l’Inde Le Canada, le Japon, le Maroc, le Chili, l’Iran, l’Equateur Le Mexique, le Mozambique, le Zambèze, le Zimbabwe Les Philippines, les Seychelles, les Iles Marquises Cuba, Haïti, … Read More →