Lesson - Section 2: The Agreement of Nouns Referring to Things

[garçoncanadien]

PART 4: THE CONCEPT OF AGREEMENT

Lesson - Section 2:
The Agreement of Nouns Referring to Things


Hello everybody, and welcome to this lesson on The Agreement of Nouns Referring to Things. Again, most nouns ending in -TION, -ION, -SION, and -E are féminin, and most nouns that do not end in these things are masculin. However, there are notable exceptions to this rule. The following exhaustive list goes into this topic in great gory detail It identifies what endings correspond to what gender, and major exceptions to this rule. Don't ask me please, I didn't invent gender

<TABLE BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0"><TR><TD>Masculin</TD><TD>Important Exceptions</TD><TD>Féminin</TD><TD>Important Exceptions</TD></TR><TR><TD>-aire: le dictionnaire</TD><TD>la grammaire</TD><TD>-aine: la douzaine</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD></TR><TR><TD>-isme: le socialisme</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD><TD>-tion: la plantation</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD></TR><TR><TD>-eau: le manteau, le tableau</TD><TD>de l'eau, la peau</TD><TD>-ée: une allée, une idée</TD><TD>le lycée, le musée</TD></TR><TR><TD>-ment: un appartement, le gouvernement</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD><TD>-ence: la science</TD><TD>le silence</TD></TR><TR><TD>-oir: le devoir</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD><TD>-oire: une histoire</TD><TD>le laboratoire</TD></TR><TR><TD>-euil: le deuil</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD><TD>-ice: la justice</TD><TD>un artifice</TD></TR><TR><TD>-age: le garage</TD><TD>la plage</TD><TD>-ie: la folie</TD><TD>&nbsp;</TD></TR></TABLE>

Some categories of words have the same gender. For examples:
All trees are masculin.
All metals are masculin (or, bleu, argent)
All languages are masculin
All seasons and days of the week are masculin
All sciences are féminin.

Some words change their meaning depending on what gender you use (meaning be very very careful with this).

le mort = a dead man/la mort = death (the noun)
le manche = handle/la manche = the sleeve
le livre = the book/le livre = the pound (a unit of weight)

Finally, your questions

1. What is the difference between: le tour/la tour?
2. What is the difference between: le poêle/la poêle?
3. What is the difference between: le poste/la poste?
4. What is the gender of: clochette.
5. What is the gender of: gâteau.
6. What is the gender of: cliente.
7. What is the gender of: étagère.
8. What is the gender of: musée.
9. What is the gender of: camion.
10. What is the gender of: automne.