Gender in French: Why Is Everything Masculine or Feminine

One of the biggest frustrations for English speakers learning French is gender. Why is a table feminine but a desk masculine? The harsh truth is: there is no logical reason why inanimate objects have gender.

However, the good news is that you don't have to memorize the gender of every single word individually. There are highly reliable patterns based on the ending of the word.

Reliable Feminine Endings

• -tion / -sion: la nation, la tension
• -té: la liberté, la beauté (Exception: le côté, l'été)
• -ette: la cigarette, la chouette
• -ance / -ence: la chance, la différence

Reliable Masculine Endings

• -ment: le gouvernement, le monument
• -age: le courage, le voyage (Exceptions: la plage, la page, l'image)
• -eau: le bureau, le bateau (Exception: l'eau)

"Look at the tail, not the head. The ending of the word gives away its gender almost every time."

By learning these spelling patterns, you will instinctively know the gender of a word even if you've never seen it before.