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Masculine and feminine forms in French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4443 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes  Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 9 of 16 07 October 2012 at 3:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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As far as I know besides the adjectives, the noun have M or F designation. Objects are
usually preceded by an article "the" such as: the car (la voiture) the house (la maison) the bed (le lit) for liquids you'd precede the noun with "some" also has to agree according to gender: some cream (de la crème) some water (de l'eau) some tea (du thé) such as: I want some water (Je veux du thé) Possessive pronouns like "my" has to agree with the gender as well: my house (ma maison) my radio (mon radio) The only except is the word friend (amie) beginning with a vowel. For a male friend you'd say: mon ami. For a female friend you'd say mon amie (instead of using "ma"). Edited by shk00design on 07 October 2012 at 3:36am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 10 of 16 07 October 2012 at 6:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I just thought of a couple more irregularities about feminine adjectives I forgot to meniton.
Adjectives in '-en' become '-enne' in the feminine form: ancien (m) → ancienne (f) - 'former, ancient' européen (m) → européenne (f) - 'European' Adjectives in '-er' and '-et' become '-ère' and '-ète' in the feminine form: premier (m) → première (f) - 'first' complet (m) → complète (f) - 'complete' Other irregular adjectives: bas (m) → basse (f) - 'low' doux (m) → douce (f) - 'sweet' faux (m) → fausse (f) - 'false' franc (m) → franche (f) - 'frank' gentil (m) → gentille (f) - 'nice' gros (m) → grosse (f) - 'big, fat' public (m) → publique (f) - 'public' sec (m) → sèche (f) - 'dry' 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 11 of 16 07 October 2012 at 6:11am | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, "radio" is a feminine noun in French. It's "ma radio". And "mon amie" isn't the only exception. The normally masculine forms mon 'my', ton 'your', son 'his/her/its' are used instead of the feminine forms ma, ta, sa in all cases where they directly precede a vowel sound: mon amie française - 'my (female) French friend' ton histoire personnelle - 'your personal history' son ancienne maison - 'his/her former house' Well, except for the H aspiré, but that's another story... Edited by Levi on 07 October 2012 at 6:20am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4469 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 12 of 16 07 October 2012 at 8:47am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for the recommendation. I just went over to Amazon and got Essential French Grammar for one cent plus 3.99 shipping. Four bucks total – not bad! I already do own this other book: French Grammar and Usage – Robert Hawkins, Richard Towell It's a highly rated grammar book on Amazon, but as a rank beginner I think I'm better off with that more basic book that you recommended. The Hawkins/Towel book will still make for great study after the more basic one gets me up to speed. That web site looks extremely useful too. Thanks for your help. I worked very, very hard to learn German well so that I can speak and write it with a high level of fluency. It's not perfect. I do have an accent and have to look up some words, but I can speak and write accurately because I understand the grammar well and have a good vocabulary. I did a lot of work to get there, but I also majored in it in college and had the university's resources behind me, plus I went on exchange to Germany. This time I'm on my own, though I don't rule out taking a course at the local community college.
I am finding that Pimsleur is helping me a lot with pronunciation. RS does pronunciation drills also. The biggest danger is the study in books and web pages where you don't hear it pronounced. To combat that I've been using frenchspanishonline's pronunciation computer: French Spanish Online Voice It is mechanical sounding, but it's better than other pronunciation pages I've found, and it gives you several choices of voices, including a Canadian one. With it I can hear anything I find in a book pronounced. When I make flash cards in Anki, I use that site to include pronunciations. In another thread, I was recommended a Free Phonology course by Robert Salazar. It's helping a lot with pronunciation. It's very repetitive, but I'm finding it worth sticking with because it's helping. Here it is: Free French Phonology Course Many thanks to everyone who has helped. It's appreciated. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4469 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 13 of 16 07 October 2012 at 8:53am | IP Logged | |||||
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One more thing. Uh oh, emk, it looks like that link you posted to the French study site goes to a generic parked URL. Is this the page you meant?:
about.french.com 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spinchäeb Ape Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4469 days ago 146 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 14 of 16 10 October 2012 at 5:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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An update. I found another really good learn French site. This one explains things really well:
Cliffs Notes French Leave it to Cliffs Notes to make something easy to follow. They took quite a beating in academic circles because some students used them to cheat by avoiding having to read a literary work. However, when used properly Cliffs Notes are very helpful. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4823 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 16 of 16 28 January 2013 at 5:07am | IP Logged | |||||
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Just a little note to say some words exist both as feminine and masculine, with different meanings. For instance une
radio refers to a radio station or a stereo, while un radio is a communications specialist abord a boat or a plane. Or un espace is a space in any general sense while une espace is a space considered in typography. Une pendule is a clock while un pendule is a pendulum. Orgue is a masculine word but sometimes can be used as a feminine plural. Une oeuvre is a work of art (like a book) but un oeuvre is the total work of an artist (the completed works of...). Other words with both genders include aigle, amour, physique, voile, etc. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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