--- title: Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Every French noun belongs to one of two groups, masculine (le, un) or feminine (la, une), even tables, cars and clouds; it i --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy o… # Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl Lesson 25 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/0/) — Every French noun belongs to one of two groups, masculine (le, un) or feminine (la, une), even tables, cars and clouds; it is a habit of the word, not a sign that the thing is male or female. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/1/) — So a table is la table, a book is le livre, and a man is still une personne, while a baby girl is still un bébé. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/2/) — Picture a class making two big posters, the le wall and the la wall: le soleil, le gâteau, le fromage go on one; la lune, la voiture, la question on the other, each with a little drawing. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/3/) — Endings are good clues: -tion, -ure and -ette are usually la, while -age, -eau and -ment are usually le, but every pattern has a few rebels such as la plage and l'eau. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/4/) — Before a vowel or a silent h, le and la both shrink to l', so l'eau and l'arbre hide their gender - you find it with un or une: une eau, un arbre. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/5/) — Every French noun is masculine (le, un) or feminine (la, une); it is about the word, not about being a boy or a girl. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/6/) — Une personne is feminine even for a man, and un bébé is masculine even for a baby girl. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/7/) — Before a vowel or a silent h, le and la become l': l'eau (feminine), l'arbre (masculine). - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/8/) — Words ending in -tion are feminine: la station, la question, la natation. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/9/) — Most words ending in -age are masculine (le fromage, le garage, le voyage), but la plage, la page, la cage and l'image are feminine. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/10/) — Le soleil (the sun) is masculine and la lune (the moon) is feminine; in German it is the other way round. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/11/) — Une voiture (a car) is feminine and un vélo (a bike) is masculine; many words ending in -ure are feminine, like la confiture (jam) and la peinture (paint). - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/12/) — Most words ending in -eau are masculine (le bateau, le gâteau, le château), but l'eau and la peau (skin) are feminine. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/13/) — Some animals have a male and a female word: le chien and la chienne, le lion and la lionne; at school the main word, le chien, is enough. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/14/) — A few words change meaning with gender: un livre is a book and une livre is a pound; un tour is a trip and une tour is a tower, like la tour Eiffel. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/15/) — Endings -ette, -tion, -ure and -ence are often feminine (la baguette, la chaussette); -ment, -eau, -age and -isme are often masculine (le moment, le bâtiment). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/16/) — The best habit is to learn every noun with le or la in front, like a surname. - ← previous: [Likes and dislikes: j'aime, je n'aime pas](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/24-likes-and-dislikes/) - next →: [Plurals: les, des and silent s](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)