Sur la table, il y a un livre, une lampe et des clés. Dans la salle, il y a le canapé et les chaises. J'aime la musique et le cinéma. L'eau est sur la table aussi.
Free to browse — sign up to save progress & learn live with a tutor.Get started Are you a tutor? Earn by teaching →
Materials
Student view Learn with a tutor
GrammarA1gendernouns
Noun gender & number
Le genre et le nombre des noms
A1fr22 min
What you'll learn
- Know every noun has a gender
- Form plurals
- Use ending patterns as clues
Tips for this lesson
- Always learn a noun WITH its article — un livre, une table — never the bare word.
- Gender is grammatical, not logical: une table isn't 'feminine' in meaning.
- The plural -s is silent — you hear plurality on the article, not the noun.
Step 1 of 6
1Reading
In context
Read. Notice that every noun has un/une or le/la attached — never a bare noun.
Step 2 of 6
2The pattern
The pattern — masculine, feminine, and plural
Every French noun is masculine or feminine — there's no neutral 'it'. Learn the ending clues, but trust the article more than the ending.
Every French noun has a grammatical gender — masculine or feminine — even for objects with no natural gender (un livre is masculine, une table is feminine; there's no logic to it, it's just how the word is). Because of this, you must learn every new noun together with its article (un/une, le/la), never as a bare word. For plurals, most nouns simply add -s: un livre → des livres. That final -s is silent — you hear the plural on the article (des, les), not on the noun itself.
| Masculine | Feminine | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | un / le livre | une / la table |
| Plural | des / les livres | des / les tables |
| Ending tendency | Usually | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -age, -ment, -eau, -isme | masculine | le voyage, le moment |
| -tion, -sion, -té, -ette, -ée | feminine | la nation, la beauté |
un livre → des livres
a book → books
The -s is silent — say them almost identically.
une table → des tables
a table → tables
l'eau, l'homme
the water, the man
le/la → l' before a vowel or mute h — you'll see this fully in articles.
un problème
a problem
Ends in -e but is masculine — the -e ending clue is unreliable, unlike -tion/-té.
Erreurs fréquentes
- Guessing 'table' should be masculine because it's just an object.Learn: une table (feminine) — memorise gender with the noun, don't reason from meaning.
Gender is grammatical, not logical. There is no 'neutral' in French — every noun picks a side.
- Pronouncing the plural -s: livreS.livres — the -s stays silent.
You signal plural with des/les, not by pronouncing the noun's ending.
- le eaul'eau
le/la elide to l' before a vowel or mute h — always, no exceptions.
Exceptions & à retenir
High-frequency exceptions to the ending clues
le musée, le lycée, le silence (masculine despite -ée/-ence-like endings) and la page, la plage (feminine despite not ending in -tion/-té). The clue table is a tendency, not a law.
Same word, different gender, different meaning
le livre (the book) vs la livre (the pound — weight/currency); le poste (job position) vs la poste (the post office). Gender can change meaning entirely.
Irregular plurals
Nouns ending in -eau/-eu add -x, not -s: un bureau → des bureaux, un jeu → des jeux. Nouns already ending in -s, -x, -z don't change: une souris → des souris.
Astuces & mémo
- Flashcard rule: never write just "table" — always write "une table" so the gender sticks.
- The ending patterns (-tion/-té = feminine, -isme/-eau = masculine) are a decent first guess, but always double-check with a dictionary or your teacher.
- When in doubt about gender in conversation, using le is a common fallback learners use — but the goal is to know it, not guess it.
Step 3 of 6
3Q&A drill
Masculine or feminine?
Match each noun to its gender.
- Q1livreA____________
- Q2tableA____________
- Q3nationA____________
- Q4voyageA____________
- Q5muséeA____________
- Q6pageA____________
Step 4 of 6
4Fill the blanks
Guided practice — singular to plural
Write the plural form of each noun (remember: the -s is silent).
Example
un livre → des (1)
→ des livres
Exercice
une table → des (1)
Exercice
un ami → des (2)
Exercice
un bureau → des (3)
Exercice
une souris → des (4)
Answer pool — drag onto a blank (or tap to fill the next one)
Next empty blank: 1
Step 5 of 6
5Word order
Build the sentence
Put the words in the correct order.
Example
surunlivrelatable→Un livre sur la table.
- Sentence 1Tap the words below to build the sentence.
- Sentence 2Tap the words below to build the sentence.
- Sentence 3Tap the words below to build the sentence.
- Sentence 4Tap the words below to build the sentence.
Step 6 of 6
6Speak freely
Produce it
Name six things around you with the correct un/une, and give the plural for two of them.
Ex.Il y a un livre, une lampe et des clés sur la table. Des livres, des lampes...
- 1.Nommez six objets autour de vous avec un/une.
- 2.Donnez le pluriel de trois de ces objets.
- 3.Quel objet a un genre qui vous surprend ?