Language Learning Factory

To speak and write any language properly, you must be acquainted with its grammar and the grammar rules. French grammar can be quite interesting to learn, like in gender rules, for a male the word ‘le’ is used, while for the female ‘la’ is used.

Similarly while using plurals, letter ‘s’ is added even to the respective article, like le bal (ball) becomes les bals.
A quick reference guide to some of the grammar rules like gender, plural and negations followed in French.

Gender Rules- Règles du genre

• Gender nouns are very simple, when you are referring to a male, then the noun and the article used will be masculine and if it is a female, then a feminine noun and article will be used.

E.g.:
doctor – médecin
child – enfant
artist - artiste

• There are masculine and feminine forms of many people

E.g.:
Masculine   Feminine        English
le fermier      la fermière      farmer
le cousin          la cousin      cousin
l'acteur            l'actrice         actor/actress

• There are also some nouns which always belong to a specific gender regardless of the person is a male or female

E.g.:
le mannequin - fashion model
le pilot – pilot
le capitaine – captain

• Some of the animals are referred to as both males and females

E.g.: un chien   une chienne  dog

Plurals rules - Règles de pluriel
Similar to English, if the French nouns are more than one in quantity it should be referred in plural form. But, there are some rules for plurals forms. Also, remember that if the noun is made plural, the respective article should also be made plural.

• Most if the nouns can be made plural by adding ‘s’ to

E.g.: la maison (house) – les maisons (houses)

• Plurals are made using the letters ‘s’, ‘x’ and ‘z’ . The plural form will remain unchanged, if the singular noun ends with any of these letters.

E.g.:
le héros (hero) - le héros (heroes)
le croix(cross)-les croix(prices)
le nez(nose)-les nez(crosses)

• For nouns ending with ‘eau’ and ‘eu’, the letter ‘x’ is added in the end to form plural.

E.g.:
le cadeau(gift) - les cadeaux(gifts)
le jeu (game) - les jeux (games)
Exceptions- le pneu (tire) - les pneus (tires):

• For nouns ending with ‘al’, the combined letter s aux is added in the end to form plural.

E.g.: le cheval (horse) - les chevaux (horses)
Exceptions- le bal (ball) – les bals (balls), le festival (festival) – les festivals (festivals)

• For some nouns ending with ‘ou’, add the letter ‘x’ in the end to form plural.

E.g.: le joujou (toy) - les joujoux (toys)

Negations rules - Règles de la négation

• A sentence is usually negated by ‘ne’ subject following the subject and ‘pas’ following the verb.

E.g.: Je ne suis pas à venir. (I am not coming.)

• A sentence can be negated if ‘ne pas’ is placed before infinitive

E.g.: L'enfer est de ne pas aimer. (Hell is not to love.)

• ‘Ne’ is placed with n' before a vowel while auxiliary is followed by ‘pas’ in compound tenses.

E.g.: La France n' a pas perdu le match (France has not lost the game.)
Ne becomes n' before a vowel. In compound tenses pas follows the auxiliary.

• ‘Ne’ is mostly omitted in casual speeches

E.g.: Je crois pas (I don’t think so.)