Gender and Agreement:
Level Nine
Dr Emma Tyler
December 2012
Part One
LEVEL NINE – GENDER OF COMPOUND
NOUNS
Gender of Compound Nouns (1)
If a compound noun is formed using a verb, then it will
be MASCULINE:
Un croque-monsieur
Un pissenlit
Un casse-noisettes
Un porte-revues
Un tire-bouchon
Gender of Compound Nouns (2)
Otherwise, the general rule of thumb is that a compound noun
takes the gender of the ‘thing‘ that it is.
So a ‘station-service’ is a kind of
stopping-place rather than a kind
of service, and will therefore be
feminine.
And an ‘homme-grenouille’ is a
kind of man, rather than a kind of
frog, and therefore will be
masculine rather than feminine.
Part Two
LEVEL NINE – GENDER OF INANIMATE
NOUNS BY THEIR ENDING
Nouns ending in a vowel
• We have now completed all the rules for nouns ending in
a consonant. Nouns ending in a vowel are more
troublesome, when it come to gender.
• Inanimate nouns ending in A, O, I, U are largely
MASCULINE.
• However, for inanimate nouns ending in an –E the rules
are far more complicated).
Nouns ending in –RRE are
mostly FEMININE
La serre
La terre
La guerre
La pierre
Nouns ending in
consonant+RE are mostly MASCULINE
Other nouns ending in a consonant followed
by –RE (ie not RRE) are mostly MASCULINE:
le ventre
le cadavre
le trimestre
le théâtre
le meutre
le coffre
Nouns ending in –IRE are
mostly MASCULINE
le laboratoire
le salaire
un hebdomadaire
le pire
le sourire
Other nouns ending in
vowel+RE are mostly FEMININE
la croisière
la sphère
la candidature
la chaussure
la gare
Part Three
LEVEL NINE – AGREEMENT OF
ADJECTIVES
Mixing singular and plural (1)
If an adjective is describing two nouns simultaneously, it
will be plural, even if they are both in the singular:
• La table et la chaise anciennes
(both the table and the chair are old)
• Un homme et un enfant beaux
(both the man and the child are handsome)
• Les dix passagères et le passager sont fatigués
(both the female passengers and the male one are English; because this
is a mixed group, the adjective is masculine plural.
Mixing singular and plural (2)
And if two adjectives are used to describe one example
each of a plural subject, the adjectives will be in the
singular:
• Deux otages britannique et italien tués au Nigeria.
(one British and one Italian hostage)
• Les langues française et anglaise.
(the French language and the English language)
• Les armées américaine et chinoise
(the American army and the Chinese one)