Genders – un and une Objectives : To get to know the French genders

Read this sentence. What does it mean exactly? C’est un crayon It is a pencil. Which of the words means ‘a ’? The word ‘un ’ means ‘a ’. Now read this sentence. Which word means ‘a ’ this time? This time, the word ‘une ’ means ‘a ’. C’est une règle

Genders – un and une There are two words for ‘a ’ in French. Why? In French, all nouns have a gender. They are either masculine or feminine. The word for pencil (crayon) is masculine, so “un “ is in front of it when we say “a pencil “’. The word for ruler (règle) is feminine, so “une” is in front of it when we say “a ruler”.

Une gomme Un stylo Une calculatrice Un crayon Une règle Un sac Un porte-monnaie Un agenda Un portable Un livre Ecoute et regarde

Genders – un and une But how can you tell whether a word is masculine or feminine? It is impossible to tell just by looking at it. UN UNE UN UNE You have to learn each word with the UN or UNE before it, once you know this, it’s not too difficult. You know that each word is preceded by something, and that UN is masculine and UNE is feminine. With time it will become a habit for you.

Genders – un and une Sometimes you will need to check in the dictionary. If the word is masculine it will have the letters “nm” next to it and if it is feminine you will find the letters “nf ” next to it. Use a dictionary to find out whether the words below are masculine or feminine. What do they mean in English? Write it in the box provided Anniversaire Bibliothèque Bâtiment Pomme Date Vérifie

Genders – un and une

Plural - des DES To make “a/an” plural in French, we use DES (don’t pronounce the S) – in English you use “some” but sometimes you don’t use anything. So if you want to say “you have some books” you will need to say: J’ai des livres It does not matter if you don’t know the gender (ie feminine or masculine des is used for both). Des règles Des stylos Des dictionnaires Des portables Ecoutez

Genders : le – la - the Sometimes, you want to say “the pencil “’, instead of “a pencil”. You must remember to check whether the word is masculine or feminine. If the word is masculine, you use the word “le” Le crayon If the word is feminine, you use the word “la” La règle

l’ If a word begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), then you can’t use le or la in front of it. Instead, you put l’ in front of it, whether it is masculine or feminine. L’ordinateur L’agenda

les the This is the word you use when you want to say the in the plural, whether the word is masculine or feminine Le chatles chats La règleles règles L’ordinateurles ordinateurs

les Find if these words are singular or plural

How to say something belongs to someone Helen’s ruler In French the sentence is slightly longer: “the ruler of Helen” You need to say “the ruler of Helen” La règle d’Hélène Possession using de Le stylo de Martin Le portable de Simone

Try to do this exercise - Write in the box below: How do you say in French: 1.Sophie’s ruler 2.Edward’s cat 3.Christina’s dog 4.Charles’ fish 5.Catherine’s book Possession using de Vérifie

Possession using de

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