12/12/12

December 10

To help you know whether a word is masculine (le or un) or feminine (la or une), I've given you a handy chart that summarizes the rules.  It's best just to memorize the gender when you learn the word, but this might help a bit.

Before I give you the table, here are the most basic rules (but there are many exceptions!):

le    English  words are usually masculine (un sode; un hamburger)
le    Words that end in consonnants are masculine
la    Words that end in "e" are usually feminine  (but feminine if "é")

Here's the set of rules:

        LE                  UN                            LA                       UNE

Nouns ending in: -age(exception!) -ment -il, -ail, -eil, -ueil -é (but not -té) -eau and -ou -ème, -ège -i, -at, -et and -ot -er -oir -isme(exception!) -ing -ard Words ending in other consonants (in the spelling).

Nouns ending in: -tion, -sion and -son (exception!) -ure -ude, -ade -ée -té -ière Consonant followed by -ie -euse -ance, -ence Most other endings consisting of Vowel + Consonant + e: -ine, -ise, -alle, -elle, -esse, -ette etc

And here's a complete list of rules: When to use "le" and when to use "la"