Notes le 14 septembre Nouns and Grammatical Gender All nouns in French are either grammatically masculine or feminine.

Nouns that refer to males are normally masculine. Nouns that refer to females are generally feminine.

Many nouns have no natural gender. They are either masculine or feminine.

Masculine nouns are often accompanied by the definite article le. It means the. le livre the book

Feminine nouns are often accompanied by the definite article la. It also means the. la table the table

Le and la become l’ before a noun that begins with a vowel or silent h. l’acteur the actorl’actrice the actressl’homme the man

When le, la and l’ are pluralized, they all become les. le livre (the book)  les livres (the books) la table (the table)  les tables (the tables) l’homme (the man)  les hommes (the men)

To make a noun plural you generally add an –s to the word. If a word ends in –al, drop the –al and add –aux. If a noun ends in –eau, add –x to the end of the word.

The words un and une are indefinite articles. They both mean a. un livre a bookune table a table Un is the masculine indefinite article. Une is the feminine indefinite article.

The plural indefinite article is des. It means some. des problèmes some problemsdes amis some friends Des is used with masculine and feminine nouns.

The expression il y a means there is/are. Il y a un animal là-bas. There’s an animal over there. Il y a des animaux là-bas. There are some animals over there.

When you want to ask what something is, use the following expressions: