Nouns - gender and plurals

In English, objects are simply "it". In French there is no neutral "it" for nouns: every single noun is either masculine or feminine. This is called its gender (le genre).

For people and animals, gender often matches real life:

• un homme (a man) — masculine; une femme (a woman) — feminine.
• un garçon (a boy) — masculine; une fille (a girl) — feminine.

But here is the part that surprises every beginner: objects, ideas and places have a gender too, and it is essentially arbitrary. The noun is masculine or feminine because of the word, not because the thing is in any way "manly" or "womanly".

French	Gender	English
le livre	masculine	the book
la table	feminine	the table
le soleil	masculine	the sun
la lune	feminine	the moon
un problème	masculine	a problem
une voiture	feminine	a car

Why does gender matter so much? Because it controls the words around the noun. The word for "the", the word for "a", and any adjective describing the noun all have to agree — they change shape to match. So getting the gender right is the key that unlocks correct French.

Worked mini-example. You want to say "a small car". Car is voiture (feminine). So "a" is une, and "small" (petit) becomes petite to agree → une petite voiture. If you wrongly thought voiture was masculine you'd write un petit voiture, which is wrong twice over. Gender drives everything.

English has one word for "the" (the book, the table, the books) and one or two for "a" (a, an). French has several, and you choose the one that matches the noun's gender and number.

The definite article ("the").

	Masculine	Feminine	Before a vowel/silent h	Plural
"the"	le	la	l'	les

• le garçon (the boy) · la fille (the girl)
• *l'*ami (the friend), *l'*école (the school) — both le and la shorten to l' before a vowel or silent h (this is elision).
• les garçons, les filles (the boys, the girls) — les is used for both genders in the plural.

The indefinite article ("a / an / some").

	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
"a / some"	un	une	des

• un livre (a book) · une table (a table)
• des livres (some books) · des tables (some tables) — des means "some" and is used for both genders.

A big difference from English: French keeps the article where English often drops it. J'ai des amis = "I have some friends" — but in English we'd usually just say "I have friends". In French you cannot leave des out.

Worked mini-example. Say "I have a sister and the brothers are at school." Sister = sœur (feminine) → une sœur. Brothers = frères (plural) → les frères. School = école (feminine, vowel start) → l'école. Result: J'ai une sœur et les frères sont à l'école.

You can't always tell a noun's gender, but the ending of the word is a surprisingly good clue. These patterns are not 100% reliable, so always confirm with the article — but they help you guess sensibly in the Reading and Writing papers.

Endings that are usually feminine:

Ending	Example	English
-tion / -sion	la natation, la télévision	swimming, television
-té	la liberté, la santé	freedom, health
-ette	la cigarette, la baguette	cigarette, baguette
-ée	la journée, la matinée	day, morning
-ie	la boulangerie, la sortie	bakery, exit
-ure	la voiture, la nature	car, nature

Endings that are usually masculine:

Ending	Example	English
-age	le fromage, le village	cheese, village
-ment	le gouvernement, le moment	government, moment
-eau	le bureau, le château	desk/office, castle
-isme	le tourisme, le sport	tourism, sport
-er / -ier	le boulanger, le quartier	baker, district

Watch out for traps. A few very common words break these rules and examiners love them:

• le musée (the museum) — ends in -ée but is masculine.
• le lycée (the secondary school) — also masculine despite -ée.
• la page (the page) and la plage (the beach) — end in -age but are feminine.
• l'eau (the water) — feminine (une eau), despite ending in -eau.

Worked mini-example. You meet une décision in a text. The ending -sion is in the "usually feminine" list, and the article une confirms it. You can now safely write une bonne décision (a good decision), with bonne (the feminine form of bon) agreeing.

The good news: the regular French plural is the easiest rule in the language. Add -s to the singular — exactly like English.

Singular	Plural	English
un livre	des livres	a book → some books
la pomme	les pommes	the apple → the apples
un ami	des amis	a friend → some friends
la maison	les maisons	the house → the houses

But the -s is silent. This is the crucial difference from English. You do not hear the -s; the only thing your ear notices is the article changing from le/la/un/une to les/des:

• le chat (luh sha) → les chats (lay sha) — the -s is invisible to the ear.
• So in the Listening paper, the article tells you whether it's singular or plural, not the noun ending.

Nouns already ending in -s, -x or -z don't change. If the singular already ends in one of these letters, the plural is identical:

• un bras → des bras (an arm → arms)
• une voix → des voix (a voice → voices)
• le nez → les nez (the nose → the noses)
• le fils → les fils (the son → the sons)

Worked mini-example. Make "the cars" from la voiture (the car). It's a regular noun, so add -s and switch the article to les: les voitures. Said aloud it's lay vwa-TÜR — the -s stays silent and only les signals the plural.

Some nouns don't just add -s. The patterns below cover almost everything you'll meet at IGCSE.

Nouns ending in -eau, -au, -eu → add -x (not -s):

Singular	Plural	English
un gâteau	des gâteaux	a cake → cakes
le bateau	les bateaux	the boat → the boats
le château	les châteaux	the castle → the castles
le jeu	les jeux	the game → the games
le cheveu	les cheveux	the hair → (the) hairs

(Like the -s, this -x is silent too — les gâteaux sounds like lay ga-TOH.)

Nouns ending in -al → change to -aux:

Singular	Plural	English
un animal	des animaux	an animal → animals
le journal	les journaux	the newspaper → the newspapers
le cheval	les chevaux	the horse → the horses
l'hôpital	les hôpitaux	the hospital → the hospitals

A few -al nouns are regular and just add -s — the most common is le festival → les festivals (the festival → festivals).

Three must-know totally irregular plurals:

• un œil → des yeux (an eye → eyes) — completely different word!
• un travail → des travaux (a job/work → works/roadworks).
• monsieur → messieurs (sir/Mr → gentlemen); madame → mesdames (madam → ladies).

Worked mini-example. Make the plural of "a beautiful castle", un beau château. Château ends in -eau, so it takes -x → châteaux. The adjective beau also follows the -eau → -eaux pattern → beaux. The article becomes des. Result: de beaux châteaux (note: des becomes de before an adjective that comes first — but des beaux châteaux is widely accepted and understood at this level). Pronounced duh boh sha-TOH, with both the -x endings silent.

Gender and number aren't just labels — they trigger agreement (l'accord). The words around the noun change shape to match it. This is the single biggest reason getting nouns right matters.

Adjectives agree with the noun. A typical adjective adds -e for feminine and -s for plural:

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	un petit chat (a small cat)	une petite voiture (a small car)
Plural	des petits chats (small cats)	des petites voitures (small cars)

So one English word, "small", becomes four French forms — petit, petite, petits, petites — depending entirely on the noun's gender and number. (You'll study adjective agreement in full in its own topic; here just notice that the noun is in charge.)

Articles agree too, as we've seen: le/la/les, un/une/des.

Worked mini-example — building a phrase from scratch. Say "the green apples".

1. Apple = pomme, feminine → article la, plural les → les pommes.
2. Green = vert; it must agree → feminine plural vertes.
3. In French, colour adjectives go after the noun. Result: les pommes vertes (the green apples). Get the gender of pomme wrong and the adjective would be wrong too — proof that the noun's gender ripples outward through the whole phrase.