Un 1.3
Grammatical Gender and Grammatical Number
Grammatical gender and grammatical number are concepts that must be mastered in order to build the most basic of sentences in French; nearly all aspects of a French sentence are either directly or indirectly influenced by them. In French, there are two grammatical genders and two grammatical numbers: masculine and feminine, singular and plural.
Grammatical Gender - Genre grammatical
Grammatical gender is used in many languages to categorize nouns into groups. These groups do not necessarily refer to the gender of the noun in question, and may be based on other categories, such as animacy (e.g. in Blackfoot), or they may appear more arbitrary, being categorized due to historical reasons. In modern English, the once commonly-used grammatical gender is now most commonly seen in personal pronouns.
e.g.
She helped him carry it. (feminine; masculine; neuter)
In French, there are two grammatical genders in which all nouns are categorized, traditionally referred to as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’. These categories can sometimes be guessed, based on the meaning of the noun.
e.g.
|
homme (masculine) |
man |
|
femme (feminine) |
woman |
Whereas, other times, a noun’s grammatical gender is far less guessable.
e.g.
|
ordinateur (m.) |
computer |
|
table (f.) |
table |
Often, the ending of a noun can help a learner guess that noun’s grammatical gender.
e.g.
|
géographie (f.) |
geography |
|
psychologie (f.) |
psychology |
There are, however, several noun endings that do not help a learner guess the grammatical gender, or for which there is a small number of exceptions.
e.g.
|
journée (f.) |
day |
|
soirée (f.) |
evening |
|
lycée (m.) |
high school |
Some nouns in French have very similar masculine and feminine forms, whose different endings can sometimes only be seen when written, or in the context of a sentence, while sounding the exact same when spoken.
e.g.
|
ami (m.) /a.mi/ |
friend (m.) |
|
amie (f.) /a.mi/ |
friend (f.) |
Some nouns have very similar masculine and feminine forms that only differ by a letter, but have changes in pronunciation due to this difference.
e.g.
|
enseignant (m.) /ɑ̃.sɛ.ɲɑ̃/ |
teacher (m.) |
|
enseignante (f.) /ɑ̃.sɛ.ɲɑ̃t/ |
teacher (f.) |
A small number of nouns have the exact same masculine and feminine forms. The grammatical gender for these words is often shown in other parts of the sentence.
e.g.
|
élève (m.) /e.lɛv/ |
(school) student / pupil (m.) |
|
élève (f.) /e.lɛv/ |
(school) student / pupil (f.) |
Grammatical gender influences many parts of a sentence in French. As such, learners need to pay special attention to learning not only nouns, but also their corresponding grammatical gender. As always, using a quality bi/monolingual dictionary will be beneficial, as they will indicate the grammatical gender of any noun, as well as any special cases.
Grammatical Number - Nombre grammatical
Grammatical number is used to categorize the count of a noun. Many languages show a distinction between singular and plural.
e.g.
|
student (singular) |
|
students (plural) |
In French, grammatical number is also based on a singular-plural distinction, typically shown at the end of the noun. Most nouns in French add the suffix -s to show that it is in the plural.
e.g
|
étudiant (sg.) |
student |
|
étudiants (pl.) |
students |
Some nouns have a plural form ending in -x. This plural ending can be predicted from the noun’s singular ending.
e.g.
|
tableau (sg.) |
board |
|
tableaux (pl.) |
boards |
In some cases, no ending is added to a noun to indicate plural. Typically, these nouns end in -s in the singular. These plurals are, however, indicated in other parts of the sentence that change due to grammatical number.
e.g.
|
cours (sg.) |
course |
|
cours (pl.) |
courses |
A small number of nouns have irregular plurals.
e.g.
|
oeil (sg.) |
eye |
|
yeux (pl.) |
eyes |
When learning new nouns, a quality dictionary will indicate if there are any peculiarities concerning the noun’s singular or plural forms. Unless otherwise stated, dictionaries are typically sorted by and show the singular form of nouns.
|
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
-s |
université |
universités |
|
-x |
bureau |
bureaux |
|
! |
cours |
cours |
Grammatical Gender and Grammatical Number - Genre grammatical et nombre grammatical
In French, much more than in English, a noun’s grammatical number and gender are typically shown throughout a sentence.
e.g.
|
The little dog plays in the park. |
singular ‘dog’, so ‘runs’ |
Le petit chien joue dans le parc. |
singular masculine ‘chien’, so ‘le’, ‘petit’, and ‘joue’ |
|
The little dogs play in the park. |
plural ‘dogs’, so ‘run’ |
Les petits chiens jouent dans le parc. |
plural masculine ‘chiens’, so ‘les’, ‘petits’, and ‘jouent’ |
