Is it LA or Le boulangerie?
A bakery is a building where bread and cakes are baked, or the shop where they are sold.
The feminine noun maison (house) takes the form of la maison (the house), une maison (a house), or les maisons (the houses).
A boulangerie is a French bakery, as opposed to a pastry shop. Bakeries must bake their bread on-premises to hold the title of 'boulangerie' in France.
| singulier | pluriel | |
|---|---|---|
| masculin | directeur | directeurs |
| féminin | directrice | directrices |
Nouns and articles - gender and word endings
Masculine nouns often end in: -eau, eg le château – castle. -isme, eg le racisme – racism. -ment, eg le médicament – medicine.
Answer and Explanation: The word café is a masculine noun. Be sure to use masculine articles and adjectives with it. For example, J'aime le café uses the masculine definite article, le.
How do you know when to use masculine vs feminine words? The best place to start when trying to figure out the gender of a French word is by looking at the ending of the word. Words that use the articles le or un are going to be masculine, and words that use the articles la or une are feminine.
Ask a French Teacher - How Can I Tell if a Noun is Masculine or Feminine?
There are even words that are spelled the same, but have a different meaning when masculine or feminine; for example, le livre (m) means the book, but la livre (f) means the pound. Some words that appear to be masculine (like le photo, which is actually short for la photographie) are in fact feminine, and vice versa.
le, la and les are the french equivalents for the. As French makes a distinction between "masculine and feminine objects", people use le for masculine things/persons and la for feminine things/persons. However, in the plural, only les is used whatever the gender is.
How do you know if it's la or LE?
- Use le with masculine nouns.
- Use la with feminine nouns.
- Use l' with words of either gender that begin with a vowel or the letter h.
The word restaurant in French is a masculine noun. Even though the word is exactly the same as in English, you need to remember to use masculine articles and adjectives with it. For example, to say 'the restaurant' you must use the masculine definite article, le as in le restaurant.
In French country names have gender, so we say la France as France is considered feminine or le portugal as Portugal is considered masculine.
