All about French Nouns: Focus on Gender

"People nouns" (about 1500) are either optional-sex (un enfant, une enfant) or one-sex oriented (un frère, une soeur). To determine gender, in these two instances only, endings do not matter. Sex matters. Sex determines gender. "Optionals" are listed phonetically in contextual blocks and defined. One-sex nouns are introduced phonetically in context where appropriate throughout. To determine the gender of all other French nouns, noun endings must be considered. Sorting out the mute e-ending ...