If you've ever tried to learn French, you know that words can be feminine -- la / une -- or masculine -- le / un. To an English speaker, this is often unnatural. I have a hard time referring to a baby girl as "le bébé" or to my husband Anthony as "une adulte" or "une personne".
But there are some words that surpass the ridiculous and enter into the sublime:
le féminin = feminine. The word means "feminine", but it is a masculine word.
le sein = breast (used only for female breasts, as opposed to la poitrine, which is a feminine word meaning "chest" used for both men and women's chests)
And the grand winner:
le vagin = vagina. It's a masculine word. Now, tell me the logic in that.
As you try to navigate your way through the le and la, there are, of course, some rules. The first one most foreigners learn is that often if a word ends in "e" it is feminine, and masculine for any other letter. Then, of course, there are the exceptions. In this case, there are so many exceptions that if you have to guess based on this rule, your chances return to about 50/50. I decide to take a test of word genders in the BLED (educational grammar book) for 4th graders (CM1) that is lying around at my friend's house. Christine is a 5th grade teacher, elementary school director, and grammar nut, and she grades my results. Despite knowing the meaning of nearly all of the words and speaking excellent French, my results are about 50% -- literally what you would expect if I just guessed blindly.
For example, words that end in "age" are an exception to the "e" rule, as they are generally masculine:
le visage = face
le garage = parking
le découpage = cutting, carving
un apprentissage = a learning period/apprenticeship
un âge = an age, era
Then, naturally, there are the exceptions to the exceptions. Off the top of my head:
la plage = beach
la page = page
la cage = cage
Words ending in "tion" are almot universally feminine. I'm sure there's an exception somewhere, but always guess "la" when you see this. As you can see, many of our English words share their roots:
la révolution = revolution
une exception = an exception
la natation = swimming
la nation = nation
la réputation = reputation
There is not much rhyme or reason.
Is furniture feminine?
la chaise = chair
la table = table
But no...
un armoire = an armoire
un canapé = a couch
un fauteuil = an armchair
Even worse, words that appear to be the same gender don't have to be:
la table = table
le sable = sand
le bain = bath
la main = hand
une part = portion
un art = an art, skill
le pin = pine
la fin = the end
Even worse than even worse is that sometimes the same word can be both le or la, but that changes the meaning either slightly...:
la trompette = trumpet
le trompette = trumpet player, whether male or female
...Or completely:
la part = portion
le part = birth
In a cruel twist of fate, the French do not agree with us in the one area where English speakers actually assign gender to nouns: vehicles. Any ship in English is called a "she", but in French:
le bateau = boat
le yacht = yacht
("Hey! Look at that ship! He's a real beauty....")
And yet:
la voiture = car
Do French people have trouble with this? Not at all. I am frequently corrected by Pippa's 6- and 7-year old friends and even by their 3-year old little sisters. And they're right. Always. I don't even question them. They learn their vocabulary with the gender so integrated, they know it without hesitation. It only sounds natural (to them) one way.
And then, there are the exceptions to that. Bien sur. Every once in a rare while, a word will come up that gives even a native French speaker pause. In the exam my friend Christine administers to me, I guess "le" for "oasis" and Christine has to mutter it to herself a few times, then even look it up to confirm, that it is indeed "la". But my really big moment comes when we are discussing this subject with Christine and her mother, who is a recently-retired elementary school teacher and director, and still-active grammar nut. I guess "le" for "apres-midi" (afternoon), using the logic that "midi" (noon) is masculine. They both proclaim it "la" and we think the subject is closed, until Christine's husband Loic mentions that it is written "cet apres-midi" (masculine for "this afternoon") instead of "cette apres-midi". When we look it up in the dictionary, it turns that L'Académie française -- official guardian of the French language -- agrees that I am correct. Let me restate that: I AM CORRECT.
That's one right for me, ten thousand for the native French speakers.
But there are some words that surpass the ridiculous and enter into the sublime:
le féminin = feminine. The word means "feminine", but it is a masculine word.
le sein = breast (used only for female breasts, as opposed to la poitrine, which is a feminine word meaning "chest" used for both men and women's chests)
And the grand winner:
le vagin = vagina. It's a masculine word. Now, tell me the logic in that.
As you try to navigate your way through the le and la, there are, of course, some rules. The first one most foreigners learn is that often if a word ends in "e" it is feminine, and masculine for any other letter. Then, of course, there are the exceptions. In this case, there are so many exceptions that if you have to guess based on this rule, your chances return to about 50/50. I decide to take a test of word genders in the BLED (educational grammar book) for 4th graders (CM1) that is lying around at my friend's house. Christine is a 5th grade teacher, elementary school director, and grammar nut, and she grades my results. Despite knowing the meaning of nearly all of the words and speaking excellent French, my results are about 50% -- literally what you would expect if I just guessed blindly.
For example, words that end in "age" are an exception to the "e" rule, as they are generally masculine:
le visage = face
le garage = parking
le découpage = cutting, carving
un apprentissage = a learning period/apprenticeship
un âge = an age, era
Then, naturally, there are the exceptions to the exceptions. Off the top of my head:
la plage = beach
la page = page
la cage = cage
Words ending in "tion" are almot universally feminine. I'm sure there's an exception somewhere, but always guess "la" when you see this. As you can see, many of our English words share their roots:
la révolution = revolution
une exception = an exception
la natation = swimming
la nation = nation
la réputation = reputation
There is not much rhyme or reason.
Is furniture feminine?
la chaise = chair
la table = table
But no...
un armoire = an armoire
un canapé = a couch
un fauteuil = an armchair
Even worse, words that appear to be the same gender don't have to be:
la table = table
le sable = sand
le bain = bath
la main = hand
une part = portion
un art = an art, skill
le pin = pine
la fin = the end
Even worse than even worse is that sometimes the same word can be both le or la, but that changes the meaning either slightly...:
la trompette = trumpet
le trompette = trumpet player, whether male or female
...Or completely:
la part = portion
le part = birth
In a cruel twist of fate, the French do not agree with us in the one area where English speakers actually assign gender to nouns: vehicles. Any ship in English is called a "she", but in French:
le bateau = boat
le yacht = yacht
("Hey! Look at that ship! He's a real beauty....")
And yet:
la voiture = car
Do French people have trouble with this? Not at all. I am frequently corrected by Pippa's 6- and 7-year old friends and even by their 3-year old little sisters. And they're right. Always. I don't even question them. They learn their vocabulary with the gender so integrated, they know it without hesitation. It only sounds natural (to them) one way.
And then, there are the exceptions to that. Bien sur. Every once in a rare while, a word will come up that gives even a native French speaker pause. In the exam my friend Christine administers to me, I guess "le" for "oasis" and Christine has to mutter it to herself a few times, then even look it up to confirm, that it is indeed "la". But my really big moment comes when we are discussing this subject with Christine and her mother, who is a recently-retired elementary school teacher and director, and still-active grammar nut. I guess "le" for "apres-midi" (afternoon), using the logic that "midi" (noon) is masculine. They both proclaim it "la" and we think the subject is closed, until Christine's husband Loic mentions that it is written "cet apres-midi" (masculine for "this afternoon") instead of "cette apres-midi". When we look it up in the dictionary, it turns that L'Académie française -- official guardian of the French language -- agrees that I am correct. Let me restate that: I AM CORRECT.
That's one right for me, ten thousand for the native French speakers.
No comments:
Post a Comment