French nouns – Les noms en francais
French is very beautiful and rich language. So rich that there are roughly around 130,000 words, but today we’re going to talk about nouns. Nouns can be classified to make it easier.
Feminine and masculine
This is a part where we all struggle because every noun in French is either masculine or feminine. Even the French struggle sometimes! The best and the most reliable way to get it right all the time is … to memorize the gender once you learn a new noun (be sure to also remember the article). But if you like to live dangerously here’s a tip on to guessing the gender of the nouns in French. Most of the time (70% of the time) the nouns that end on an “e” are feminine (with some exceptions, of course).
We made you a spreadsheet with most common endings for masculine and feminine.
Singular and plural
All nouns in French are either singular (one) or plural (more than one). Most plural nouns are formed by adding -s at the end of a singular noun. If the singular noun already ends in -s, -x or –z you don’t have to add –s at the end. Furthermore, there are nouns that end in –x in their plural form. When you see nouns that end in – eu, -eau, and –ou you have to add an –x to form the plural.
For instance:
un bateau = des bateaux a boat = boats
un jeu = des jeux a game = games
un chou = des choux a cabbage = cabagges
Common and proper
Furthermore, all nouns are classified either as proper or common. Common nouns are words used to name general things whereas the proper ones are used to name specific things. Something to remember: quite often, proper nouns don’t have an article.
For example:
Ginette et Paul sont allés voir les animaux au zoo.
Ginette and Paul went to see the animals at the zoo.
Paris est la ville de l’amour et du romantisme.
Paris is the city of love and romance.
J’aime manger les croissants de chez *«Paul».
I love eating croissants from «Paul».
* « Paul » is a French chain of bakery/ café restaurants
To know more about French Words, click HERE to learn.