[fattouh1]

Articles and Genders
1. Gender in French

We have a bad and a good news for you : as opposed to English, French words have a gender. That's the bad news. The good news is that French words can have only two genders : masculine or feminine. Unfortunately, there is an additional bad news : the distribution of the words in the masculine and the feminine genders does not comply to any logical rule. Therefore, the only way to know the gender of a word is to learn it by heart!

The gender is determined by the article, either definite (the in English) or indefinite (a/an in English).

* Masculine definite article: headphonele [leu]
* Feminine definite article: headphonela
* Masculine indefinite article: headphoneun [nasal sound which can be derived from the English sound "un" as explained in the first lesson]
* Feminine indefinite article: headphoneune [?n']

The genders of the words introduced in the previous lesson are :

* headphonela/une table (the/a table)
* headphonele/un sac (the/a bag)
* headphonele/un chat (male cat), headphonela/une chatte (female cat)
* headphonele/un bras (the/an arm)
* headphonela/une soeur (the/a sister)
* headphonela/une bouche (the/a mouth)
* headphonela/une jambe (the/a leg)
* headphonela/une lampe (the/a lamp)
* headphonela/une terre (the/a land)
* headphonela/une botte (the/a boot)
* headphonela/une langue (tongue)
* headphonele/un langage (language)
* headphonela/une chambre (room)
* headphonele/un vélo (the/a bike)
* headphonele/un jour (the/a day)
* headphonela/une nuit (the/a night)
* headphonela/une voiture (the/a car)
* headphonele/un pays (the/a country)
* headphonele/un frère (the/a brother)
* headphonele/un père (the/a father)
* headphonela/une mère (the/a mother)
* headphonela/une tête (the/a head)
* headphonela/une maison (the/a house)
* headphonela main (the/a hand)
* headphonele/un pain (the/a bread)
* headphonela/une tasse (the/a cup)

When a word begins with a vowel, the definite article that precedes the word is contracted whatever the gender is :

* une assiette (a plate), l'assiette (the plate)
* un oiseau (a bird), l'oiseau (the bird)
* un animal (an animal)l'animal (the animal)
* une araîgnée (a spider), l'araîgnée (the spider)
* une auto (a car), l'auto (the car)

Previously, we said that there was no logical rules to find out the gender of the French words. Actually, there are some...
Professions

Almost every profession has two genders depending on whether it is a man or a woman who is accomplishing the work. Examples :

un boulanger
a male baker
une boulangère
a female baker
un boucher
a male butcher
une bouchère
a female butcher

The following list gives the masculine and feminine form of some professions:

Driver

* Masculine: un conducteur
* Feminine: une conductrice

Airplane pilot

* Masculine: un aviateur
* Feminine: une aviatrice

Engineer

* Masculine: un ingénieur
* Feminine: une ingénieure

Teacher

* Masculine: un professeur
* Feminine: une professeure

President

* Masculine: un président
* Feminine: une présidente

Minister

* Masculine: un ministre
* Feminine: une ministre

Worker

* Masculine: un ouvrier
* Feminine: une ouvrière

Animals

Like professions, most animals may have both genders (male and female). As opposed to professions, the way the female form is built does not comply to any general rule and consequently, must be learnt by heart. The following is a list of examples:

Cat

* Masculine: un chat [sha]
* Feminine: une chatte [shat']

Dog

* Masculine: un chien [shi-in]
* Feminine: une chienne [shièn']

Lion

* Masculine: un lion [li-on]
* Feminine: une lionne [li-on']

Tiger

* Masculine: un tigre
* Feminine: une tigresse [tigrès']

Horse

* Masculine: un cheval
* Feminine: une jument

Rabbit

* Masculine: un lapin
* Feminine: une lapine

Rat

* Masculine: un rat
* Feminine: une rate

Pig

* Masculine: un porc, un cochon
* Feminine: une truie [tr?-i]

Bovine (cow/bull)

* Masculine (bull): un taureau [toro]
* Feminine (cow): une vache

Donkey

* Masculine: un âne
* Feminine: une ânesse

As you may have noticed in the previous examples, the feminine form is often derived from the masculine by appending an "e" to the word. This rule is applicable in most cases and leads to a more general one : the feminine form of nouns and adjectives is built by appending an "e" to the masculine form of the word. This rule is general enough that you should learn it.
2. Plural articles

The plural form of the definite and indefinite articles is very simple for it does not vary according to the gender:

* Definite article: les (both feminine and masculine)
* Undefinite article: des (both feminine and masculine)

Plural rule: In French, the plural form of nouns and adjectives is built by appending an "s" (like in English). However, in many cases, this rule is not applicable, and you will be required to learn by heart the irregular form of plural form of these exceptions (lesson 4). Examples:

* Singular: le chat
* Plural: les chats
* Singluar: la table
* Plural: les tables
* Singluar: un chien
* Plural: des chiens
* Singluar: une lionne
* Plural: des lionnes
* Singluar: un oiseau
* Plural: des oiseaux
oiseau is one of these exceptions.

3. Some usual expressions

* headphonemerci (thank you)
* headphones'il vous plaît (please)
* headphonebonjour (literally "good day", means good morning/good afternoon)
* headphonebonsoir (good evening)
* headphonebonne nuit (good night)
* headphoneau revoir (literally "see you again", means goodbye)
* headphonepardon (sorry)
* headphoneexcusez-moi (excuse me)

[kamal80]

TANKS
gooooooooooooooood

[fattouh1]

شكرا كمال على المتابعة و الاهتمام.
بارك الله فيك.