194: How do you remember the gender of nouns?

Ali asks: "How do you remember the gender of nouns?"

Episode Summary:

• Unfortunately, noun genders just have to be remembered
• At first it seems like an impossible task, but keep going, and you will start to know instinctively which is which
• You will inevitably make some mistakes, but you will be forgiven!
• If you use mnemonics, try creating some way of visualising the gender of the word
• In practice, you can guess the gender of many words using generalised rules (see below)
• Interestingly, the gender of words can vary between romance languages. For example, "planet": la planète (Fr), el planeta (Es)

Examples in French, taken from the French Your Way site: The following words are generally masculine:

• Nouns ending in “_sme” Example : le communisme, le capitalisme, le marasme
• Nouns ending in « _et » Examples : un ticket, un garçonnet
• Nouns ending in « _euil » Example : le cerfeuil (chervil), un écureuil, un fauteuil, un cerceuil (coffin)

The following words are generally feminine:

• Nouns ending in « _tié” Examples: une amitié, la moitié, la pitié
• Nouns ending in « _ée » Examples: la journée, la soirée, une vallée, une fée (= fairy) Exceptions: words rerived from Greek, such as: le musée, le trophée, un scarabée, un lycée
• Nouns ending in “_tte” Examples : une bouillotte (a warm water bottle), une fourchette, une maisonnette, une fillette Exception :un squelette

Resources Mentioned In Today's Episode:

• French Your Way - a helpful website about learning French!

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