Determining the Gender of French Nouns

Masculine and Feminine Noun Endings

Red metro sign with light in Paris, France
Based on the ending of the word 'metro' is the word masculine or feminine?.

carterdayne/Getty Images 

French gender is a headache for many students of French. Why is manteau masculine and montre feminine? Why is témoin always masculine and victime always feminine? As vexing as this subject is for nonnative speakers, we simply have to accept that French gender is here to stay. In fact, consider yourself lucky that you're studying French; in German and Latin, for instance, you'd have to learn three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), and in still other languages, it gets even more complicated. It might help to know that grammatical gender (what we're discussing here) has nothing to do with natural gender, which is actual, physical gender of living beings.

Linguist Andrew Livingston tells us grammatical gender is a way of classing nouns that's older than recorded history. It's deeply embedded in the DNA of an array of Indo-European languages that trace their lineage to a common ancestor, which probably needed to differentiate between the animate and the inanimate. In French, there's simply no way to know the gender of every single noun other than by memorizing the gender of each. There are, however, certain patterns in suffixes and word endings that are a tip-off. As you can see by the number of exceptions here, these gender patterns are not foolproof indicators, but they can help.

Before we begin, a couple of notes: We try to list the most common and, thus, most useful exceptions; we avoid obscure exceptions. Also, to avoid confusion, we do not list dual-gender nouns

French Masculine Nouns

Here are some suffixes that usually indicate masculine nouns, as well as some important exceptions.

-age
Exceptions: la cage, une image, la nage, la page, la plage, la rage

-b

-ble
Exceptions: une cible, une étable, une fable, une table

-c
Exception: la fac (apocope of la faculté)

-cle
Exception: une boucle

-d

-de
Exceptions: la bride, la merde, la méthode, la pinède; -ade, -nde, -ude endings


Exceptions: la clé, la psyché; sé, té, and tié endings

-eau
Exceptions: l'eau, la peau

-ège
Exception: la Norvège

-et

-eur
Note: This applies mainly to names of professions and mechanical or scientific things; also see -eur in the list of feminine endings.

-f
Exceptions: la soif, la clef, la nef

-i
Exceptions: la foi, la fourmi, la loi, la paroi

-ing

-isme

-k

-l
Exception: une roseval

-m
Exception: la faim

-me
Exceptions: une alarme, une âme, une arme, la cime, la coutume, la crème, l'écume, une énigme, une estime, une ferme, une firme, une forme, une larme, une plume, une rame, une rime, -mme ending

-ment
Exception: une jument

-n
Exceptions: la façon, la fin, la leçon, la main, la maman, la rançon; -son and -ion endings

-o
Exceptions: la dactylo, la dynamo, la libido, la météo, la moto, la steno (most of these are apocopes of longer feminine words)

-oir

-one

-ou

-p

-r
Exceptions: la chair, la cour, la cuiller, la mer, la tour (see feminine -eur)

-s
Exceptions: la brebis, la fois, une oasis, la souris, la vis

-ste
Exceptions: la liste, la modiste, la piste; names for people like un(e) artiste, un(e) nudiste, etc.

-t
Exceptions: la burlat, la dent, la dot, la forêt, la jument, la mort, la nuit, la part, la plupart, la ziggourat

-tre
Exceptions: la fenêtre, une huître, la lettre, la montre, la rencontre, la vitre

-u
Exceptions: l'eau, la peau, la tribu, la vertu

-x
Exceptions: la croix, la noix, la paix, la toux, la voix

Feminine Noun Endings

Here are some suffixes that usually indicate feminine nouns, as well as some important exceptions. Remember, we list here the most common endings, because these will be the most useful for you to know.

-ace
Exceptions: un ace, un palace

-ade
Exceptions: le grade, le jade, le stade

-ale
Exceptions: un châle, un pétale, un scandale

-ance

-be
Exceptions: un cube, un globe, un microbe, un tube, un verbe

-ce
Exceptions: 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
Exception: un crustacé

-e
Note:
 Most countries and names that end in e are feminine.

-ee
Exception: un pedigree

-ée
Exceptions: un apogée, un lycée, un musée, un périgée, un trophée

-esse

-eur
Note: This applies mainly to abstract qualities and emotions, except le bonheur, l'extérieur, l'honneur, l'intérieur, le malheur, le meilleur. Also see -eur on the list of masculine endings.

-fe
Exception: le golfe

-ie
Exceptions: un incendie, le foie, le génie, le parapluie, le sosie

-ière
Exceptions: l'arrière, le cimetière, le derrière

-ine
Exceptions: le capitaine, le domaine, le moine, le magazine, le patrimoine

-ion
Exceptions: un avion, un bastion, un billion, un camion, un cation, un dominion, un espion, un ion, un lampion, un lion, un million, le morpion, un pion, un scion, un scorpion, un trillion

-ique
Exceptions: un graphique, un périphérique

-ire
Exceptions: 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
Exceptions: l'anthracite, un ermite, le granite, le graphite, le mérite, l'opposite, le plébiscite, un rite, un satellite, un site, un termite

-lle
Exceptions: le braille, un gorille, un intervalle, un mille, un portefeuille, le vaudeville, le vermicelle, le violoncelle

-mme
Exceptions: un dilemme, un gramme, un programme

-nde
Exception: le monde

-nne

-ole
Exceptions: le contrôle, le monopole, le rôle, le symbole

-rre
Exceptions: le beurre, le parterre, le tonnerre, le verre

-se
Exceptions: un carosse, un colosse, le gypse, l'inverse, un malaise, un pamplemousse, un parebrise, le suspense

-sé
Exceptions: un exposé, un opposé

-sion

-son
Exceptions: un blason, un blouson

-té
Exceptions: un arrêté, le comité, le comté, le côté, un député, un été, le pâté, le traité

-tié

-tion
Exception: le bastion

-ude
Exceptions: le coude, un interlude, le prélude

-ue
Exception: un abaque

-ule
Exceptions: le préambule, le scrupule, le tentacule, le testicule, le véhicule, le ventricule, le vestibule

-ure
Exceptions: le centaure, le cyanure, le dinosaure, le murmure

Format
mla apa chicago
Your Citation
Team, ThoughtCo. "Determining the Gender of French Nouns." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/french-gender-masculine-endings-1368853. Team, ThoughtCo. (2023, April 5). Determining the Gender of French Nouns. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/french-gender-masculine-endings-1368853 Team, ThoughtCo. "Determining the Gender of French Nouns." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/french-gender-masculine-endings-1368853 (accessed March 29, 2024).