Posts tagged with "gender"

Some “Tricky” French Nouns: Change their Gender, Get a Whole New Meaning!

Posted by Mr. Transparent 2 Comments
Nov 20 2011

Not too long ago, we tackled here in The French Blog the often “tricky” issue of French gender: “French Quiz: Masculin (♂) or Féminin (♀)?”

In today’s post we’ll feature a super special category of unusual French nouns, which can mean deux choses complètement différentes (two things completely different), depending only on whether they are used as masculin or féminin.

Sounds a bit “tricky“, doesn’t it?

Well, then let’s check it out mes amis!

Since there is no particular rule to recognize or categorize these special nouns, which change their sens (meaning) simply by changing their genre (gender), your best shot would be to just memorize them—And remember, the overall context is always your friend!

Here are some of the most important of such nouns that you should always keep in mind:

  • Un aide vs. une aide:
If you find the word “aide” used in the masculin form, then it means “a helper”, as in “un aide-soignant” (a “nurse’s aide”, or a “practical nurse”); however, if “aide” comes in the féminin form, then it simply means “a help”, as in the expression “l’aide divine” (“divine help”), or “l’aide humanitaire.” 

  • Un critique vs. une critique:
The masculin word “critique” designates “a critic (person)”, as in “un critique d’art“, whereas “une critique” means either “a criticism”, as in “une critique constructive” (a constructive criticism), or simply a “critique”, as in “une critique littéraire” (a “literary critique.”)

  • Un livre vs. une livre:
Most new French learners would recognize “un livre“ (“a book”), but would be puzzled if they stumbled into “une livre” or “la livre“, and can even mistake that for a typo! The explanation is in fact simple, since the feminine form “une livre” means “a pound”, either the currency, i.e. “la livre sterling“, or the weight measure, as in the Shakespearean expression “une livre de chaire” (“a pound of flesh.”) 

  • Un manche vs. une manche:
“Un manche” stands for “a handle”, as in “un manche à balai” (“a broomhandle”, which can also mean, in informal terms of course, “a very skinny person”!) “Une manche“, however, means “a sleeve.” Par exemple you can say “Elle a plusieurs cartes dans sa manche” (“She has many cards up her sleeve.”) Also, be sure that if you encounter “la Manche” (capitalized) ,then you immediately recognize it as “The English Channel”! 

  • Un mémoire vs. une mémoire:
This one should not be too hard to “memorize”: If you are writing a dissertation, or if you feel like you’re old enough to start writing your memoirs (think Chateaubriand‘s “Mémoires d’Outre-tombe“), then you are writing un mémoire. But if you speak about your memory faculty, then you would be referring to the féminin noun “la mémoire.”
 
The same can be said about the distinction between un merci (a “thank you”) and une merci (a mercy); un mode, as in “un mode d’emploi” (“a user’s manual”), and une mode (a fashion), as in MC Solaar‘s song “Victime de la mode” (“Fashion Victim”); un moule (a mold), as in “le moule de la société“ (“society’s mold”), and une moule (a mussel); le pendule (the pendulum), as in the novel “Le Pendule de Foucault” (“Foucault’s Pendulum”) of the sulfurous Umberto Eco, and la pendule (the clock); le physique (the physic, or the physical appearance) and la physique (physics); un poêle (a stove) and une poêle (a frying pan); un tour, meaning either “a trick”, as in un tour de magie (a “magic trick”) or a turn, as in “c’est ton tour” (“it’s your turn”), and une tour (a tower), as in “la Tour Eiffel“; and finally le voile (the veil) and la voile (sail, or sailing.)    

French Language – Gender of Inanimate Nouns

Posted by Transparent Language 1 Comment
Feb 25 2009

We’ve talked about gender before and today we’ll discuss it some more as it can be difficult for English speakers when learning French because we don’t really have these issues in our language.  Many nouns have a fixed gender.  The suffixes can indicate the gender of these nouns, but there are many, many exceptions.  Some of the most frequent suffixes include:

Masculine

Feminine
-isme (le journalisme, le pessimisme) -té (la qualité, la pauvreté)
-ment (le mouvement, le vêtement) -ion (la question, une clarification)
-age (le voyage, le bagage)
Exceptions: une page, une image, une plage, une cage, la nage, la rage)		 -eur (la fleur, la saveur)
 Exception: le bonheur
-oi (la loi, la foi)
-ie (la sociologie, la magie)
-(e)au (le bureau, le noyau) -ure (la fermeture, la panure)
-phone (le téléphone, le microphone) -esse (la richesse, la tendresse)
-oir (le soir, le noir) -ette (la raquette, la claquette)
-et (le paquet, le bidet) -ence/-ance (l’expérience, la balance)

Some nouns take on a different meaning if you change the gender.  For example,

un livre de grammaire (a grammar book)     une livre de tomates (a pound of tomatoes)
un voile de mariée (veil)                                une voile de bateau (a sail)
le mode subjonctif (mood)                            la mode des années 80 (fashion)
le poste de police (the police station)          la poste (mail)

GEOGRAPHIC NOUNS
As we’ve touched on before, in general, nouns that end in -e are feminine like la France, l’Italie, la Normandie.  All others are usually masculine as in: le Japon, le Canada, le Languedoc.  But, be careful because there are exceptions of course: le Mexique, le Cambodge, le Zaïre…

CITIES
The gender for cities is not fixed.  When the noun ends in -e, they are usually considered to be feminine.  For example:
Toulouse est grande.
However, all other cities are considered to be masculine.  For example,
Paris est grand

The gender for MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS is not set in stone.  For example: la Seine, but, le Nil; le Jura, but, les Alpes (fem.plural)

So, in the end, it’s really all about memorization.  Surprise!

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