What If The Masculine Noun Is Describing Something Feminine?

I’m actually thinking of a specific example, though I think this answer may help me in other situations. I know cat is “le chat” and kitten is “le chaton”… and I use them to describe my cat, who is a female. (Yes, I practice the French I’ve learned that day by talking to my cat in French… crazy cat lady here.) Am I supposed to use these nouns as feminine because she is female or do the nouns stay masculine no matter what I am describing? Sorry, I can’t seem to find the answer anywhere. I

Forum>Topic: French>What if the masculine noun is…

What if the masculine noun is describing something feminine?LindsayKaye12I’m actually thinking of a specific example, though I think this answer may help me in other situations.
I know cat is “le chat” and kitten is “le chaton”… and I use them to describe my cat, who is a female. (Yes, I practice the French I’ve learned that day by talking to my cat in French… crazy cat lady here.)
Am I supposed to use these nouns as feminine because she is female or do the nouns stay masculine no matter what I am describing?
Sorry, I can’t seem to find the answer anywhere. I thought somebody here may know.June 10, 2020

LindsayKaye12

I’m actually thinking of a specific example, though I think this answer may help me in other situations.
I know cat is “le chat” and kitten is “le chaton”… and I use them to describe my cat, who is a female. (Yes, I practice the French I’ve learned that day by talking to my cat in French… crazy cat lady here.)
Am I supposed to use these nouns as feminine because she is female or do the nouns stay masculine no matter what I am describing?
Sorry, I can’t seem to find the answer anywhere. I thought somebody here may know.

June 10, 2020

30 Commentsfoqus555Plus1272Lol. This reminds me of a passage from Easy French Reader by Roussy de Sales. Someone will be able to explain further, but basically some animals are male, and you make them feminine by saying, “a cat, female”. Here is a passage about a boa.
MARC J’ai un nouveau livre qui est excellent.
Tu veux le voir?
JULIE C’est quoi?
MARC C’est un livre avec des photos des
serpents. Regarde!
JULIE Ce sont des bêtes° merveilleuses!
Celle-là° est très grande. C’est quoi, tu
sais?
MARC Cela doit être un boa, mais je ne sais
pas lequel.
JULIE Comment tu sais que c’est un mâle?
MARC C’est le mot «boa» qui est masculin.
Pour le boa dans la photo, je ne sais pas.
JULIE Donc, tous les mots pour les animaux
sont du genre° masculin?
MARC Non, quelques-uns sont masculins,
d’autres féminins.
JULIE C’est une découverte° intéressante, mais
ce n’est pas logique.
MARC Si, c’est logique. On dit: «un boa, une
vipère, un serpent». C’est simple!
JULIE Et si l’animal est de l’autre sexe,
qu’est-ce qu’on dit?
MARC «Un boa femelle, une vipère mâle, une
girafe mâle, un éléphant femelle».
JULIE Alors, le féminin de chat est «un chat
femelle», et de lion, «un lion femelle»,
n’est-ce pas?
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms
d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple
il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion,
une lionne».
JULIE Encore des exceptions! Il y a toujours
des exceptions.
MARC Il y a aussi des animaux qui ont des
noms tout à fait différents, comme «un
taureau» et «une vache».
JULIE C’est quoi?
MARC Une vache, c’est un animal qui nous
donne du lait et du bœuf. Un taureau,
c’est le mâle.
JULIE Oh là là! Et pour les humains, il y a une
forme féminine pour les professions?
MARC Oui, bien sûr. Le féminin de «musicien»
est «musicienne»; de «boulanger°»,
«boulangère»; et de «président»,
«présidente».
JULIE Et de «avocat°», «avocate», n’est-ce pas?
MARC Oui, tu as raison. Tu commences à
comprendre.
JULIE Et si un homme fait le travail° d’une
bonne°, est-ce qu’on l’appelle «Monsieur
la bonne» ou «Monsieur la femme de
chambre»?
MARC Mais non, voyons! C’est un valet de
chambre.
JULIE Oh là là! Que c’est compliqué tout cela!
MARC C’est aussi simple et aussi facile à
apprendre que les verbes.
JULIE Comment! Tu trouves que les verbes
sont faciles à apprendre!
MARC Oui, les verbes français sont faciles.
JULIE Oh, yes?
MARC En français, on ne dit pas Oh, yes? mais
«Ah, oui?». C’est presque la même
expression, mais ce n’est pas la même
chose.
JULIE Je sais, je sais. Tu commences à être
fatigant°.
MARC Attends, je vais t’apprendre quelque
chose. Si tu ajoutes -er à beaucoup de
verbes anglais, tu as le verbe en
français, comme «flirter», par exemple.
Tu sais d’où vient le mot «flirter»?
JULIE «Flirter» n’est pas un mot français. Je
proteste, Marc. Flirter est une
occupation américaine.
MARC Non, c’est un mot français. C’est nous
qui l’avons inventé. Cela vient du mot
«fleur°». De là, on a le verbe «fleureter»,
puis «flirter», qui se prononce comme si
c’était écrit «fleur-ter».
JULIE Tu es très poétique, Marc, mais tu n’as
pas raison. Je vois que tu dis n’importe
quoi° pour impressionner les filles.
Here’s 100 lingots for making remember that funny passage.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12That was a lot of French for somebody who has only been studying for a week, but I was proud at how much I knew. Of course, that’s the Easy French Reader!
I think you gave me my answer; I just want to clarify.
So basically, I would refer to my cat as le chat or le chaton in normal use despite her being female. Her gender doesn’t matter there, just the gender of the noun. If I wanted to call her a female cat, I would need to say “un chat femelle,” am I right about that?June 10, 2020foqus555Plus1272Oh, nope, because “cat” happens to be one of the ones that has it’s own female version…you would say, “Une chatte”.
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion, une lionne».June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Ahhh, so I should perhaps start teaching my cat my daily French lesson with “une chatte”! Thank you!!!
I know it sounds crazy to practice on my cat, but it’s better than not practicing at all.June 10, 2020Indo.chine952Ooooo, be careful! ‘Chatte’ can mean something….off-colour. I don’t want to type it here because kids are on Duo. Maybe Google it.
I’m nothing close to an expert, but my understanding of the whole thing is that it’s easier to just stick to the commonly-use version, un chat. French people understand that ‘un chat’ can be a female cat. After all, you’re not saying the cat is male, you’re saying the noun is male. That’s why it’s called a gendered noun. It’s the noun that’s masculine, not that cat. That’s my understanding, anway.
Even if it wasn’t for the off-colour misunderstanding thing, I’d still stick to ‘un chat’. My understanding is that this is the norm with French speakers.
As for the off-colour thingy….urm. I’ve been told it’s all in the tone and intent, but as a non-native speaker, I wouldn’t risk it. June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I just read that… and an article of other French words not to use. I will definitely be keeping those in mind.June 10, 2020ettellyIt’s not crazy haha that’s exactly the way to do it :DJune 10, 2020StuMatthew5Plus797Oui, c’est une chatte, j’ai le même question !June 13, 2020foqus555Plus1272If you had a boa constrictor, you would say that she is “un boa femelle”June 10, 2020angus3900251467Nice! Have a lingot.
First, I had no idea that R. de Roussy de Sales had other books. (I have French Verb Drills by the same author.) Second, I like the cheesy duolingo-style story. Third, I’m assuming that you have downloaded the script for donating multiple lingots with one click. I haven’t downloaded that one, but I have several others which I use with ViolentMonkey, including camillo’s enhancment feature (highly recommended), fierycat’s “make the motivational messages go away” (which has been rendered obsolete by the recent toggle switch provided by duolingo), and flabbergast’s “make the sticky posts go away” scripts. Fourth, the character Marc in your story reminds me of Jean-Claude in the series French in Action. Always trying to score, never succeeding, but he teaches us some French along the way. (Knowing what not to say to the ladies is as important as knowing what to say, n’est-ce pas?)
Bonne chance et bonne continuation.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Are these used on the web? I’m new.June 10, 2020angus3900251467For sure there are many scripts out there. Some are better than others. You should probably get a feel for duolingo raw before you use any enhancement scripts, but there’s “dark mode”, immersion scroller, and a bunch of others. I only use the three I mentioned, plus one for Arabic (a font enhancer that makes a more readable arabic font.) I’m not much of a hacker so I haven’t written my own scripts. I mainly mentioned it because he (or she?) gave you a hundred lingots. Without a script that takes at least 200 clicks of a mouse, so I assume that there’s a script involved.
The other thing that impressed me was the mention of Roussy. I was not aware of the Easy French Reader, but of course it would make sense that he would have written other books for French learners. I used French Verb Drills regularly when I was first learning conjugations in various moods and I can recommend it.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Ummm… is that Elvis in a mask?June 10, 2020angus3900251467haha. Young Elvis in an Old Elvis mask, I guess you could say. The mask is a hack job by me. The photo was uncredited, but I’m sure it was taken before I was born. June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12@angus390025 Well, any picture of Elvis was taken before I was born, unless those tabloids in the 90s were right, but I’m a fan of Elvis in a mask.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Wow, thank you for the hundred lingots!June 10, 20202LearningSpanish2209Sometimes a language has a word for an animal species that covers individual males and females, but whether it happens to be a French noun of masculine or feminine gender, you might add something to it to designate that individual as a male or female.
Sometimes there is a second word choice like: la vache versus le taureau.
Someone asked this question in the Spanish forum, and some people there warned us to be careful not to say something insulting by mistake. So here is an article with grammar notes on your question and also warning us about what to do regarding a cat or a dog that happens to be a female animal. http://frenchyourway.com.au/french-animals-masculine-feminineJune 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Oh, not using chatte…June 10, 2020foqus555Plus1272Good point…I didn’t know that one. I do remember being told NOT to say “Je suis chaud”, when the temperature is warm like we do in English…https://frenchtogether.com/common-french-mistakes/June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I am so glad I asked this question.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I’ll look up that article. Luckily, I’ve learned what NOT to say in Spanish (unless it’s the dinner rush), but I haven’t learned that in French yet. That will be very useful because some innocent sounding words are really not.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I think I’ll stick to calling her mon chat or mon chaton… I did not know some of these could be so offensive!June 10, 2020AnLxoPThere’s actually a word for female cat, which is “chatte”. So now you can call her ma chatte instead.June 10, 2020[deactivated user]But really better not too…. look up the earlier references! It has a second meaning which is rather impolite!June 10, 2020idomne167it could be a bad moment for you if you go to the veterinary and you say to him: “mon chat est malade”.
He will consider you with big worryJune 11, 2020TillephantYou should still be abole to refer to your cat as “elle” nevertheless, even if you refer to her as “mon chat”. In German it’s the other way around, the general term is feminie and there is an extra word for a male cat. :)June 10, 2020StuMatthew5Plus797Great question! Congratulations on learning such a beautiful language.
I laughed at your profile description. Very funny!
It’s something like: << J'aime le plein air en ce que j'aime me saouler sur les terrasses > in French. June 13, 2020LindsayKaye12I’m going to write that down and save it for later. Perhaps I’ll put it in my profile as well!!! Thanks for translating that for me!!!June 14, 2020ArvanethUn chat une chatte un chatton
Cat, female cat, kittenJune 12, 2020ElenawakeupThat’s the problem/difference between English and French, differences in genres. I know the question is answered. I was just pointing out when I do French from English translations are always the cat/le chat but in Spanish they often give la chatte/la gata. I guess it’s just a little extra challenge as we generally treat cats, dogs, horses and the likes as male (in Spanish and French) unless we have inside information about the individual animalJune 19, 2020

30 Comments

foqus555Plus1272Lol. This reminds me of a passage from Easy French Reader by Roussy de Sales. Someone will be able to explain further, but basically some animals are male, and you make them feminine by saying, “a cat, female”. Here is a passage about a boa.
MARC J’ai un nouveau livre qui est excellent.
Tu veux le voir?
JULIE C’est quoi?
MARC C’est un livre avec des photos des
serpents. Regarde!
JULIE Ce sont des bêtes° merveilleuses!
Celle-là° est très grande. C’est quoi, tu
sais?
MARC Cela doit être un boa, mais je ne sais
pas lequel.
JULIE Comment tu sais que c’est un mâle?
MARC C’est le mot «boa» qui est masculin.
Pour le boa dans la photo, je ne sais pas.
JULIE Donc, tous les mots pour les animaux
sont du genre° masculin?
MARC Non, quelques-uns sont masculins,
d’autres féminins.
JULIE C’est une découverte° intéressante, mais
ce n’est pas logique.
MARC Si, c’est logique. On dit: «un boa, une
vipère, un serpent». C’est simple!
JULIE Et si l’animal est de l’autre sexe,
qu’est-ce qu’on dit?
MARC «Un boa femelle, une vipère mâle, une
girafe mâle, un éléphant femelle».
JULIE Alors, le féminin de chat est «un chat
femelle», et de lion, «un lion femelle»,
n’est-ce pas?
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms
d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple
il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion,
une lionne».
JULIE Encore des exceptions! Il y a toujours
des exceptions.
MARC Il y a aussi des animaux qui ont des
noms tout à fait différents, comme «un
taureau» et «une vache».
JULIE C’est quoi?
MARC Une vache, c’est un animal qui nous
donne du lait et du bœuf. Un taureau,
c’est le mâle.
JULIE Oh là là! Et pour les humains, il y a une
forme féminine pour les professions?
MARC Oui, bien sûr. Le féminin de «musicien»
est «musicienne»; de «boulanger°»,
«boulangère»; et de «président»,
«présidente».
JULIE Et de «avocat°», «avocate», n’est-ce pas?
MARC Oui, tu as raison. Tu commences à
comprendre.
JULIE Et si un homme fait le travail° d’une
bonne°, est-ce qu’on l’appelle «Monsieur
la bonne» ou «Monsieur la femme de
chambre»?
MARC Mais non, voyons! C’est un valet de
chambre.
JULIE Oh là là! Que c’est compliqué tout cela!
MARC C’est aussi simple et aussi facile à
apprendre que les verbes.
JULIE Comment! Tu trouves que les verbes
sont faciles à apprendre!
MARC Oui, les verbes français sont faciles.
JULIE Oh, yes?
MARC En français, on ne dit pas Oh, yes? mais
«Ah, oui?». C’est presque la même
expression, mais ce n’est pas la même
chose.
JULIE Je sais, je sais. Tu commences à être
fatigant°.
MARC Attends, je vais t’apprendre quelque
chose. Si tu ajoutes -er à beaucoup de
verbes anglais, tu as le verbe en
français, comme «flirter», par exemple.
Tu sais d’où vient le mot «flirter»?
JULIE «Flirter» n’est pas un mot français. Je
proteste, Marc. Flirter est une
occupation américaine.
MARC Non, c’est un mot français. C’est nous
qui l’avons inventé. Cela vient du mot
«fleur°». De là, on a le verbe «fleureter»,
puis «flirter», qui se prononce comme si
c’était écrit «fleur-ter».
JULIE Tu es très poétique, Marc, mais tu n’as
pas raison. Je vois que tu dis n’importe
quoi° pour impressionner les filles.
Here’s 100 lingots for making remember that funny passage.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12That was a lot of French for somebody who has only been studying for a week, but I was proud at how much I knew. Of course, that’s the Easy French Reader!
I think you gave me my answer; I just want to clarify.
So basically, I would refer to my cat as le chat or le chaton in normal use despite her being female. Her gender doesn’t matter there, just the gender of the noun. If I wanted to call her a female cat, I would need to say “un chat femelle,” am I right about that?June 10, 2020foqus555Plus1272Oh, nope, because “cat” happens to be one of the ones that has it’s own female version…you would say, “Une chatte”.
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion, une lionne».June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Ahhh, so I should perhaps start teaching my cat my daily French lesson with “une chatte”! Thank you!!!
I know it sounds crazy to practice on my cat, but it’s better than not practicing at all.June 10, 2020Indo.chine952Ooooo, be careful! ‘Chatte’ can mean something….off-colour. I don’t want to type it here because kids are on Duo. Maybe Google it.
I’m nothing close to an expert, but my understanding of the whole thing is that it’s easier to just stick to the commonly-use version, un chat. French people understand that ‘un chat’ can be a female cat. After all, you’re not saying the cat is male, you’re saying the noun is male. That’s why it’s called a gendered noun. It’s the noun that’s masculine, not that cat. That’s my understanding, anway.
Even if it wasn’t for the off-colour misunderstanding thing, I’d still stick to ‘un chat’. My understanding is that this is the norm with French speakers.
As for the off-colour thingy….urm. I’ve been told it’s all in the tone and intent, but as a non-native speaker, I wouldn’t risk it. June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I just read that… and an article of other French words not to use. I will definitely be keeping those in mind.June 10, 2020ettellyIt’s not crazy haha that’s exactly the way to do it :DJune 10, 2020StuMatthew5Plus797Oui, c’est une chatte, j’ai le même question !June 13, 2020foqus555Plus1272If you had a boa constrictor, you would say that she is “un boa femelle”June 10, 2020angus3900251467Nice! Have a lingot.
First, I had no idea that R. de Roussy de Sales had other books. (I have French Verb Drills by the same author.) Second, I like the cheesy duolingo-style story. Third, I’m assuming that you have downloaded the script for donating multiple lingots with one click. I haven’t downloaded that one, but I have several others which I use with ViolentMonkey, including camillo’s enhancment feature (highly recommended), fierycat’s “make the motivational messages go away” (which has been rendered obsolete by the recent toggle switch provided by duolingo), and flabbergast’s “make the sticky posts go away” scripts. Fourth, the character Marc in your story reminds me of Jean-Claude in the series French in Action. Always trying to score, never succeeding, but he teaches us some French along the way. (Knowing what not to say to the ladies is as important as knowing what to say, n’est-ce pas?)
Bonne chance et bonne continuation.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Are these used on the web? I’m new.June 10, 2020angus3900251467For sure there are many scripts out there. Some are better than others. You should probably get a feel for duolingo raw before you use any enhancement scripts, but there’s “dark mode”, immersion scroller, and a bunch of others. I only use the three I mentioned, plus one for Arabic (a font enhancer that makes a more readable arabic font.) I’m not much of a hacker so I haven’t written my own scripts. I mainly mentioned it because he (or she?) gave you a hundred lingots. Without a script that takes at least 200 clicks of a mouse, so I assume that there’s a script involved.
The other thing that impressed me was the mention of Roussy. I was not aware of the Easy French Reader, but of course it would make sense that he would have written other books for French learners. I used French Verb Drills regularly when I was first learning conjugations in various moods and I can recommend it.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Ummm… is that Elvis in a mask?June 10, 2020angus3900251467haha. Young Elvis in an Old Elvis mask, I guess you could say. The mask is a hack job by me. The photo was uncredited, but I’m sure it was taken before I was born. June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12@angus390025 Well, any picture of Elvis was taken before I was born, unless those tabloids in the 90s were right, but I’m a fan of Elvis in a mask.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Wow, thank you for the hundred lingots!June 10, 20202LearningSpanish2209Sometimes a language has a word for an animal species that covers individual males and females, but whether it happens to be a French noun of masculine or feminine gender, you might add something to it to designate that individual as a male or female.
Sometimes there is a second word choice like: la vache versus le taureau.
Someone asked this question in the Spanish forum, and some people there warned us to be careful not to say something insulting by mistake. So here is an article with grammar notes on your question and also warning us about what to do regarding a cat or a dog that happens to be a female animal. http://frenchyourway.com.au/french-animals-masculine-feminineJune 10, 2020LindsayKaye12Oh, not using chatte…June 10, 2020foqus555Plus1272Good point…I didn’t know that one. I do remember being told NOT to say “Je suis chaud”, when the temperature is warm like we do in English…https://frenchtogether.com/common-french-mistakes/June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I am so glad I asked this question.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I’ll look up that article. Luckily, I’ve learned what NOT to say in Spanish (unless it’s the dinner rush), but I haven’t learned that in French yet. That will be very useful because some innocent sounding words are really not.June 10, 2020LindsayKaye12I think I’ll stick to calling her mon chat or mon chaton… I did not know some of these could be so offensive!June 10, 2020AnLxoPThere’s actually a word for female cat, which is “chatte”. So now you can call her ma chatte instead.June 10, 2020[deactivated user]But really better not too…. look up the earlier references! It has a second meaning which is rather impolite!June 10, 2020idomne167it could be a bad moment for you if you go to the veterinary and you say to him: “mon chat est malade”.
He will consider you with big worryJune 11, 2020TillephantYou should still be abole to refer to your cat as “elle” nevertheless, even if you refer to her as “mon chat”. In German it’s the other way around, the general term is feminie and there is an extra word for a male cat. :)June 10, 2020StuMatthew5Plus797Great question! Congratulations on learning such a beautiful language.
I laughed at your profile description. Very funny!
It’s something like: << J'aime le plein air en ce que j'aime me saouler sur les terrasses > in French. June 13, 2020LindsayKaye12I’m going to write that down and save it for later. Perhaps I’ll put it in my profile as well!!! Thanks for translating that for me!!!June 14, 2020ArvanethUn chat une chatte un chatton
Cat, female cat, kittenJune 12, 2020ElenawakeupThat’s the problem/difference between English and French, differences in genres. I know the question is answered. I was just pointing out when I do French from English translations are always the cat/le chat but in Spanish they often give la chatte/la gata. I guess it’s just a little extra challenge as we generally treat cats, dogs, horses and the likes as male (in Spanish and French) unless we have inside information about the individual animalJune 19, 2020

foqus555Plus1272

Lol. This reminds me of a passage from Easy French Reader by Roussy de Sales. Someone will be able to explain further, but basically some animals are male, and you make them feminine by saying, “a cat, female”. Here is a passage about a boa.
MARC J’ai un nouveau livre qui est excellent.
Tu veux le voir?
JULIE C’est quoi?
MARC C’est un livre avec des photos des
serpents. Regarde!
JULIE Ce sont des bêtes° merveilleuses!
Celle-là° est très grande. C’est quoi, tu
sais?
MARC Cela doit être un boa, mais je ne sais
pas lequel.
JULIE Comment tu sais que c’est un mâle?
MARC C’est le mot «boa» qui est masculin.
Pour le boa dans la photo, je ne sais pas.
JULIE Donc, tous les mots pour les animaux
sont du genre° masculin?
MARC Non, quelques-uns sont masculins,
d’autres féminins.
JULIE C’est une découverte° intéressante, mais
ce n’est pas logique.
MARC Si, c’est logique. On dit: «un boa, une
vipère, un serpent». C’est simple!
JULIE Et si l’animal est de l’autre sexe,
qu’est-ce qu’on dit?
MARC «Un boa femelle, une vipère mâle, une
girafe mâle, un éléphant femelle».
JULIE Alors, le féminin de chat est «un chat
femelle», et de lion, «un lion femelle»,
n’est-ce pas?
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms
d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple
il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion,
une lionne».
JULIE Encore des exceptions! Il y a toujours
des exceptions.
MARC Il y a aussi des animaux qui ont des
noms tout à fait différents, comme «un
taureau» et «une vache».
JULIE C’est quoi?
MARC Une vache, c’est un animal qui nous
donne du lait et du bœuf. Un taureau,
c’est le mâle.
JULIE Oh là là! Et pour les humains, il y a une
forme féminine pour les professions?
MARC Oui, bien sûr. Le féminin de «musicien»
est «musicienne»; de «boulanger°»,
«boulangère»; et de «président»,
«présidente».
JULIE Et de «avocat°», «avocate», n’est-ce pas?
MARC Oui, tu as raison. Tu commences à
comprendre.
JULIE Et si un homme fait le travail° d’une
bonne°, est-ce qu’on l’appelle «Monsieur
la bonne» ou «Monsieur la femme de
chambre»?
MARC Mais non, voyons! C’est un valet de
chambre.
JULIE Oh là là! Que c’est compliqué tout cela!
MARC C’est aussi simple et aussi facile à
apprendre que les verbes.
JULIE Comment! Tu trouves que les verbes
sont faciles à apprendre!
MARC Oui, les verbes français sont faciles.
JULIE Oh, yes?
MARC En français, on ne dit pas Oh, yes? mais
«Ah, oui?». C’est presque la même
expression, mais ce n’est pas la même
chose.
JULIE Je sais, je sais. Tu commences à être
fatigant°.
MARC Attends, je vais t’apprendre quelque
chose. Si tu ajoutes -er à beaucoup de
verbes anglais, tu as le verbe en
français, comme «flirter», par exemple.
Tu sais d’où vient le mot «flirter»?
JULIE «Flirter» n’est pas un mot français. Je
proteste, Marc. Flirter est une
occupation américaine.
MARC Non, c’est un mot français. C’est nous
qui l’avons inventé. Cela vient du mot
«fleur°». De là, on a le verbe «fleureter»,
puis «flirter», qui se prononce comme si
c’était écrit «fleur-ter».
JULIE Tu es très poétique, Marc, mais tu n’as
pas raison. Je vois que tu dis n’importe
quoi° pour impressionner les filles.
Here’s 100 lingots for making remember that funny passage.June 10, 2020

June 10, 2020

LindsayKaye12That was a lot of French for somebody who has only been studying for a week, but I was proud at how much I knew. Of course, that’s the Easy French Reader!
I think you gave me my answer; I just want to clarify.
So basically, I would refer to my cat as le chat or le chaton in normal use despite her being female. Her gender doesn’t matter there, just the gender of the noun. If I wanted to call her a female cat, I would need to say “un chat femelle,” am I right about that?June 10, 2020

That was a lot of French for somebody who has only been studying for a week, but I was proud at how much I knew. Of course, that’s the Easy French Reader!
I think you gave me my answer; I just want to clarify.
So basically, I would refer to my cat as le chat or le chaton in normal use despite her being female. Her gender doesn’t matter there, just the gender of the noun. If I wanted to call her a female cat, I would need to say “un chat femelle,” am I right about that?

June 10, 2020

foqus555Plus1272Oh, nope, because “cat” happens to be one of the ones that has it’s own female version…you would say, “Une chatte”.
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion, une lionne».June 10, 2020

Oh, nope, because “cat” happens to be one of the ones that has it’s own female version…you would say, “Une chatte”.
MARC Mais non, voyons! Beaucoup de noms d’animaux ont un féminin. Par exemple il y a «un chat, une chatte» et «un lion, une lionne».

June 10, 2020

LindsayKaye12Ahhh, so I should perhaps start teaching my cat my daily French lesson with “une chatte”! Thank you!!!
I know it sounds crazy to practice on my cat, but it’s better than not practicing at all.June 10, 2020

Ahhh, so I should perhaps start teaching my cat my daily French lesson with “une chatte”! Thank you!!!
I know it sounds crazy to practice on my cat, but it’s better than not practicing at all.

June 10, 2020

Indo.chine952Ooooo, be careful! ‘Chatte’ can mean something….off-colour. I don’t want to type it here because kids are on Duo. Maybe Google it.
I’m nothing close to an expert, but my understanding of the whole thing is that it’s easier to just stick to the commonly-use version, un chat. French people understand that ‘un chat’ can be a female cat. After all, you’re not saying the cat is male, you’re saying the noun is male. That’s why it’s called a gendered noun. It’s the noun that’s masculine, not that cat. That’s my understanding, anway.
Even if it wasn’t for the off-colour misunderstanding thing, I’d still stick to ‘un chat’. My understanding is that this is the norm with French speakers.
As for the off-colour thingy….urm. I’ve been told it’s all in the tone and intent, but as a non-native speaker, I wouldn’t risk it. June 10, 2020

Ooooo, be careful! ‘Chatte’ can mean something….off-colour. I don’t want to type it here because kids are on Duo. Maybe Google it.
I’m nothing close to an expert, but my understanding of the whole thing is that it’s easier to just stick to the commonly-use version, un chat. French people understand that ‘un chat’ can be a female cat. After all, you’re not saying the cat is male, you’re saying the noun is male. That’s why it’s called a gendered noun. It’s the noun that’s masculine, not that cat. That’s my understanding, anway.
Even if it wasn’t for the off-colour misunderstanding thing, I’d still stick to ‘un chat’. My understanding is that this is the norm with French speakers.
As for the off-colour thingy….urm. I’ve been told it’s all in the tone and intent, but as a non-native speaker, I wouldn’t risk it.

June 10, 2020

LindsayKaye12I just read that… and an article of other French words not to use. I will definitely be keeping those in mind.June 10, 2020

I just read that… and an article of other French words not to use. I will definitely be keeping those in mind.

June 10, 2020

ettellyIt’s not crazy haha that’s exactly the way to do it :DJune 10, 2020

It’s not crazy haha that’s exactly the way to do it 😀

June 10, 2020

What if the masculine noun is describing something feminine?

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