Bonjour!
When I was teaching beginner French classes in my language centre in Sydney, Australia, students would always ask the same thing—how on earth are we supposed to know if a word is masculine or feminine?!
One of them, Ken—I think it was Ken—once proudly declared he'd figured it out:
“If it ends in e, it’s feminine. If not, it’s masculine.”
Ahhh… if only!
Sadly for Ken (and everyone else), that rule doesn’t hold up for very long.
But here’s the good news: while the gender of French nouns often seems unpredictable, there are patterns you can rely on—especially if you're travelling in France and want to feel a bit more confident ordering that baguette (feminine) or buying that ticket (masculine).
So let’s dive in.
📚 The frustrating bit first: it’s often arbitrary.
Some nouns just don’t follow any obvious rule:
- un livre (a book) but une feuille (a sheet)
- un billet (a bank note) but une pièce (a coin or a room)
Same world, different genders. No logic. Sorry, Ken.
🧠 But wait! Word endings can be helpful.
Masculine (most of the time):
- -ment → un gouvernement, un établissement
- -phone / -scope → un téléphone, un télescope
- -eau → un bureau, un couteau
- -teur → un ordinateur, un aspirateur
- -age → un garage, un mirage
⚠️ But beware: une image, une page, une plage
Feminine (these are your best friends):
- -sion / -tion → une profession, une nation
- -té → une société, une beauté
- -ure → une culture, une peinture
- -ette → une baguette, une bicyclette
- -ence / -ance → une différence, une connaissance
🤓 A few more fun facts to confuse you slightly:
- Many words ending in -e are masculine!
→ un musée, un problème, un système
But not une table or une chaise...
- Many words ending in -eur are feminine:
→ une couleur, une valeur, une odeur
But then… un moteur, un aspirateur – surprise!
🧳 Why this matters if you’re travelling in France
Knowing the gender affects:
- Articles (un, une, le, la)
- Adjectives (petit / petite)
- Pronouns (il / elle)
In short: it can make your French more natural, and help you be understood more clearly. Even a little goes a long way.
