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Gender

Gender. In this presentation, we will look at two very important concepts in French: gender and agreement. Gender. Look at these English words and guess whether they refer to male or female : Bull Hen Husband Niece Cousin Calculator Love. Gender. Some are obvious: Bull (m.)

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Gender

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  1. Gender • In this presentation, we will look at two very important concepts in French: gender and agreement.

  2. Gender • Look at these English words and guess whether they refer to male or female: • Bull • Hen • Husband • Niece • Cousin • Calculator • Love

  3. Gender • Some are obvious: • Bull (m.) • Hen (f.) • Husband (m.) • Niece (f.) • Others are unknown: • Cousin (m. or f.) • While others are neither (“neuter”): • Calculator, love

  4. Gender • In English, nouns and pronouns fall into three grammatical groups: • Masculine: man, husband, rooster, he • Feminine: woman, wife, hen, she • Neuter: child, bird, it

  5. Gender • In French, all nouns fall into just two categories: • Masculine (“masculine”) • Feminine (“feminine”) • There is no “neuter” class in which to place nouns such as “table” and “chair.”

  6. So what does this mean? • You should start thinking about French nouns as being either masculine or feminine.

  7. Let’s take a look! • Here are some nouns with their corresponding definite article (“the”): • le garçon (the boy) • la fille(the girl) • le profeseur(the professor) • la profeseur(the professor) • le cahier (notebook) • la chaise (chair)

  8. Let’s reorganize these words. • Put all of the “le” words together: • le garçon • le profeseur • le cahier • And all the “la” words together: • la fille • la profeseur • la chaise

  9. That’s easy! • Masculine nouns use the definite article “le” while feminine nouns use “la.” • Let’s look at a few more: • Le table (the table) • Le livre (the book) • La chaise (the chair) • La maison (the house)

  10. Just a minute!! • Words that are neuter in English are either masculine or feminine in French. • This does not mean that these words have masculine or feminine characteristics! It is just a purely grammatical classification.

  11. Let’s practice! • Do you think these nouns are masculine (“le”) or feminine (“la”)? Don’t worry about the meanings for now. • ___ chaise • ___ cahier • ___ fille • ___ fils • ___ voiture • ___ carte

  12. How did you do? • La chaise • Le cahier • la fille • le fils • la voiture • la carte • Generally speaking, nouns that end in a consanant are masculine, while those that end in –e are feminine. There are exceptions, but we will worry about them on a case-by-case basis.

  13. What’s the bottom line? • Learn every French noun with its article. It will pay off soon, because you will be able to classify new nouns as you see the patterns develop.

  14. Lets take a look at all the definite articles (the) and indefinite articles (a). • Mas Definite Fem Definite • le l’ la Singular • les les Plural • Mas Indefinite Fem Indefinite • un une Singular • des des Plural

  15. The only difference is changing “the” to “a” when switching articles. • Le chat les chats • The cat the cats • Un chat des chats • A cat some cats • La maison les maisons • the house the houses • Une maison des maisons • A house some houses

  16. Agreement • Look at these sentences (grand = tall): • Le fils est grand. • La fille est grande. • Words that describe “fils” end in a consanant: • Words that describe “fille” end in –e: fille, grande

  17. What’s going on here? • Other words in the sentence also change to “agree” (match the form of the noun they describe). Here’s another one: • Le professeur est petit et content. • How would you change this sentence to talk about a woman professor?

  18. Agreement • La professeur est petite et contente • What if there is more than one male teacher?

  19. Agreement • Les professeurs sont petits et contents. • What is happening?? • Les > “the” plural • Professeurs > plural • Sont> “are” • Petits and contents > adjectives match the ending of the nouns, too. • This doesn’t happen in English (except for “this/these” and “that/those”). But it’s an important feature in French!

  20. Let’s try one! • Put the correct ending on each word. • La fille est petit__ et content__. • Mon chien est grand__ et brun__. • Now make them plural.

  21. Your final answer… • Les filles sont petites et contentes. • Mes chiens sont grands et bruns.

  22. That’s enough for now! • This is a very tricky concept for learners of French, mainly because it is so different from English. • However, it is extremely important and requires a lot of concentration on your part! Keep your eyes and ears open for gender and agreement, and soon the patterns will become clearer.

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