Nouns are words that refer to people, e.g.: soeur ("sister"), places, e.g.: la France ("France"), concrete things, e.g.: livre ("book") and abstract notions, e.g.: amour ("love"). The most important thing to know about nouns is that you need to learn as many as you can! We suggest you start with the most common ones and use vocabulary lists to increase your knowledge of nouns.
When writing nouns, you need to know how to spell them and how to indicate both gender (feminine/masculine) and number (singular/plural).
The words that correspond to a and the in English (i.e.: un, une, le, la, les) match the nouns they precede in several ways. One important way is what is referred to as grammatical gender. All French nouns are either masculine or feminine. This has nothing to do with biology, it’s just a way French organizes words. The important thing to remember is that if a noun is feminine, then the preceding word must also be in the feminine form, e.g.:
In the example given above, chose is feminine, which is why it is preceded by une rather than un.
The real challenge is knowing which nouns are masculine and which are feminine. It’s not always easy to determine without checking a dictionary. However, there are some general patterns that might be of help. For example, almost all words that end in -ion are feminine, e.g.:
Most words of more than one syllable ending in -age are masculine, e.g.:
Whenever you learn a new word, make sure you also learn whether or not is preceded by un or une.
A relatively small number of words change meaning depending on their gender, e.g.:
Like English, French explicitly indicates when there is a plural noun (i.e.: more than one), e.g. Les amis, ses enfants. The most common way to indicate this is with an -s at the end of the noun (though it is almost never pronounced).
Some nouns, however, actually indicate plural with an -x. The most common are:
As you can see, the nouns that form their plural in -x are limited to those ending in -al, ou, el, au and eu (and there is the odd exception to this "exception", e.g.: un pneu, des pneus, un festival, des festivals).
When two nouns or a noun and adjective are joined by a hyphen, both show plural marking,
In cases where the first word is a verb and the second a noun, it is usually only the noun that bears the plural mark, e.g.:
If two nouns in a compound are separated by a preposition, the tendency is to only make the first word plural, e.g.:
*last names don't actually end in -s, e.g.: Les Tremblay, Les Fournier, les Nadasdi, les Sinclair, etc.
* the plural of un oeil is des yeux
*la location means "rental" ("what is your location?" = Où êtes-vous?).
*un essai means "a try", not "an essay" (use dissertation or travail écrit).
*graduation refers to decreasing/increasing (use la remise de diplômes or avoir son diplôme).
*la chance means "luck" (use un essai, "a try", or une possibilité)
*un caractère refers to someone's personality (use un personnage to talk about people in movies, books, etc.)
* une librairie means "a bookstore" (use bibliothèque for "library")
A list of common anglicisms can be found here.
Q: Why is it des chevaux and NOT des chevals?
Most nouns that end in -al form their plural with -aux.
Q: Why is it des arcs-en-ciel and NOT des arcs-en-ciels?
If two nouns in a compound are separated by a preposition, only the first noun has a plural marker.
Q: Why is it j'ai lu un livre and NOT j'ai lu une livre?
The word for "book" is un livre (une livre means "a pound").
Q: Why is it chez les Tremblay and NOT chez les Tremblays?
Family names don't have a plural marker.
Q: Why is it j'aime l'emplacement and NOT j'aime la location?
The French word location means "rental" (from the verb louer). To express this in French, use emplacement, lieu or a structure with où ...
Q: Why is it j'ai fait une demande d'emploi and NOT j'ai fait une application d'emploi ?
The French word application refers to applying a substance (e.g.: a liquid, like paint) to an object; it can also mean "attention/concentration" (par ex.: travailler avec application). It can't be used though when refering to a form or job.
Q: What is the difference between an and année?
They both mean "year". The word année focuses on the duration and tends to be used with the word pendant and non-numeric adjectives like toute, bonne, difficile, meilleure and pire, e.g.: une année difficile, toute l'année. On the other hand, the word an tends to be used with numbers, e.g.: l'enfant a un an et demi, un voyage de trois ans.
Choose the correct determiner (gender agreement):
Translate the following (be sure to include the first word as well):
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