French Nouns

articles

gender and number

A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing, whether concrete (e.g., chair, dog) or abstract (idea, happiness).

French compound nouns are made up of two or more words and are often connected by hyphens. Figuring out their gender can be a little tricky, but there are some guidelines that can help.

Lesson on making compound nouns plural.

Certain endings tend to indicate masculine nouns, while other endings favor feminine nouns. These gender patterns can help you to figure out the gender of many French nouns.

French nouns with identical pronunciation (and possibly spelling as well) may have different meanings depending on whether they are masculine or feminine.

In both French and English, many nouns can be singular or plural: un homme (one man), deux hommes (two men), la chaise (the chair), les chaises (the chairs). But there are quite a few French nouns that can only be plural, including some related to religion and material possessions.

There are also quite a few French nouns that can only be singular, including abstractions, matter, and sciences.

Nouns are not always singular in both French and English. Page one of this lesson is a list of words that are singular or uncountable in English but plural in French. Page two has nouns that are singular, uncountable, or invariable in French but plural or countable in English.