Nouns: Gender and Number
What is a noun?
A noun is a word that can be the name of a person, an animal, place, thing, event, or an idea. Example: professor, dog, Paris, lamp, marriage, poverty
Masculine / Feminine
Nouns in French have a gender. They can be masculine or feminine. If you’ve studied something like Spanish, German, or even Arabic, you’ll know that gender is very much a thing.
The gender of a word in French can sometimes be identified by its ending. The best place to start with this rule is that most feminine nouns in French end in ‘e’.
YouTube : Understand gender in French
Singular / Plural
As well as being masculine or feminine, a French noun will also be singular or plural. When a word refers ton one person or thing, it is said to be singular; when it refers to more than one, it is plural. Here, the French language is very similar to English in that “-s” is a common way of making a noun plural. Note, however, that the s is not pronounced.
Then you have the exceptions, which tend to follow a few guidelines. The noun endings influence how a plural form is constructed:
Most nouns ending in –eau or -eu add an –x in the plural.
| Singular | Plural |
| chapeau | chapeaux |
| jeu | jeux |