Genders again

[Sue56]

Hi - have recently looked at the earlier link "trouble remembering genders" and can see the reasoning behind the method. For me I find it a long winded way, its too much to remember when in conversation when you want it to flow.  I guess I'm a different kind of learner ( apparently there are 3 types but that's for another day).

I have just looked on the OU French website and someone gave the following tip which, for me, I find I can access quicker during conversation.

All words ending "age" ie. bricolage, are masculine with the exception of  la plage, la page et l'image.

Words ending "ade", ie. prommenade, are feminine

Words ending "tion" ie. révolution are feminine

Words ending é are feminine except for le coté (sorry can't find the hat accent for the 'o')

General rule for foreign influenced words are that they are masculine.

 

If anyone can add any exceptions please feel free.

Sue[:)]

[M]

 All words ending "age" ie. bricolage, are masculine except for rage, cage, nage, plage, page & image.

[Ysatis]

I have absolutely loads saved on my computer. If I knew how to get from 'My Documents' to here, I would, but I'm not sure if that can be done. If someone knows, please explain, extremely simply as I'm a complete idiot as far as computers. I'm going away for a few days but if I have the time when I return, I will write them out, it's quite a long list.

To list a few:

Masculine endings

-b, -d, -ing, -k, -l, -one,

-ble ( except: une cible, une étable, une fable, une table )

-c ( except la fac ( faculté) )

-cle ( except une boucle)

-f ( except la soif )

-i ( la foi, la fourmi, la loi, la paroi ) 

Feminine endings

-ade ( except le grade, le jade, le stade )

-ale ( except un châle, un pétale, un scandale)

-cé (except un crustacé )

-ee ( un pedigree )

-ée ( except un apogée, un lycée, un musée, un périgée, un trophée )

-nne

-tié

Those were a few of the simpler ones, the ones with none or the least exceptions!!

If anyone wants me to continue on my return, please say, my typing then won't be in vain!!

[Sfgraveston]

And saxifrage!!

Stuart

[Cassis]

Surely to God nobody actually learns a language this way?  [blink]

[Ysatis]

    For me no, I stumbled upon this list looking for something else. When I did my GCSE French 2 years ago, my french teacher told me about the ones Sue56 mentioned and for some reason they have stuck in my head but the list is so long,and has many exceptions to the rule, unless you have a really good memory it's hard to master. For me, I think the longer the ending, -age, the easier it is to remember. I hardly refer to the list because it's so long and tedious to just sit down and learn them.

    Sometimes, to me, a word just sounds more correct using le or la, of course this can be a bit hit and miss, and there are many words that are the same but different genders so mean something different, like le livre: book and la livre: pound; le voile: veil and la voile: sail or sailing; excluding when the gender changes when you are talking about, for example, a person: le comédien: actor and la comédienne: actress. I'm not sure how much it matters when actually speaking, apart from asking to borrow someones book and them giving you a pound instead! I'm sure the French must get genders wrong, so surely we can be forgiven in our endeavours of learning this wonderful language.

Regards,