French Gender - Feminine Endings
Using French suffixes to find the gender of nouns
Feminine | Masculine
French gender is a constant headache for many students of French. Why is manteau masculine and montre feminine, when both men and women wear both of them? What's the logic behind gender in French? There's no simple answer to this question, and no simple way to know the gender of every noun other than just learning the gender with each word. There are, however, some patterns in suffixes and word endings - certain endings tend to indicate masculine nouns, while other endings indicate feminine nouns. As you can see by the lists of exceptions, these gender patterns are not fool-proof, but they can help you to figure out the gender of many French nouns.
Note that the second column has exceptions to
the rule, not examples.
| Suffix | Exceptions, (Notes) |
| -ace | |
| -ade | le grade, le jade, le stade |
| -ale | un châle, un pétale, un scandale |
| -ance | |
| -be | un cube, un globe, un microbe, un tube, un verbe |
| -ce | un artifice, un armistice, un appendice, le bénéfice, le caprice, le commerce, le dentifrice, le divorce, un exercice, un office, un orifice, un précipice, un prince, un sacrifice, un service, le silence, le solstice, le supplice, un vice |
| -cé | un crustacé |
| -e | (Most countries and names that end in e are feminine) |
| -ee | un pedigree |
| -ée | un apogée, un lycée, un musée, un périgée, un trophée |
| -esse | |
| -eur | abstract qualities and emotions, except le bonheur, l'extérieur, l'honneur, l'intérieur, le malheur, le meilleur (also see masculine -eur) |
| -fe | le golfe |
| -ie | un incendie, le foie, le génie, le parapluie, le sosie |
| Suffix | Exceptions, (Notes) |
| -iere | l'arrière, le cimetière, le derrière |
| -ine | le capitaine, le domaine, le moine, le magazine, le patrimoine |
| -ion | un avion, un bastion, un billion, un camion, un cation, un dominion, un espion, un ion, un lampion, un lion, un million, un scion, un scorpion, un trillion |
| -ique | un graphique, un périphérique |
| -ire | un auditoire, un commentaire, un dictionnaire, un directoire, un horaire, un itinéraire, l'ivoire, un laboratoire, un navire, un pourboire, le purgatoire, le répertoire, le salaire, le sommaire, le sourire, le territoire, le vocabulaire |
| -ise | |
| -ite | l'anthracite, un ermite, le granite, le graphite, le mérite, l'opposite, le plébiscite, un rite, un satellite, un site, un termite |
| -lle | le braille, un gorille, un intervalle, un mille, un portefeuille, le vaudeville, le vermicelle, le violoncelle |
| -mme | un dilemme, un gramme, un programme |
| -nde | le monde |
| -nne | |
| -ole | le contrôle, le monopole, le rôle, le symbole |
| Suffix | Exceptions, (Notes) |
| -rre | le beurre, le parterre, le tonnerre, le verre |
| -se | un carosse, un colosse, le gypse, l'inverse, un malaise, un pamplemousse, un pare-brise, le suspense |
| -sé | un exposé, un opposé |
| -sion | |
| -son | un blason, un blouson |
| -té | un arrêté, le comité, le comté, le côté, un été, le pâté, le traité |
| -tié | |
| -tion | |
| -tte | un squelette |
| -ude | le coude, un interlude, le prélude |
| -ue | un abaque |
| -ule | le préambule, le scrupule, le tentacule, le testicule, le véhicule, le ventricule, le vestibule |
| -ure | le centaure, le cyanure, le dinosaure, le murmure |
| Suffix | Exceptions, (Notes) |
Notes:
- Obscure exceptions are not listed - no need get bogged down with words you'll probably never use.
- Dual-gender nouns are not listed to avoid confusion.
- The second column has exceptions to the rule, not examples.
Feminine | Masculine
| Comments - Additions - Critiques |
| Introduction to French nouns |
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