Lesson 2: Nouns. Gender and number. Numbers 20–100

Part 1: Gender — two boxes, no logic

French has two genders: masculine (masculin) and feminine (féminin). There is no neuter. Every single noun — animate or inanimate, concrete or abstract — belongs to one of the two boxes.

Masculine (le / un)	Feminine (la / une)
le livre (book)	la table (table)
le chat (cat)	la maison (house)
un stylo (pen)	une chaise (chair)

The big mental shift for English speakers: English has no grammatical gender on objects. The book, the table, the cat — all just the. French slaps a gender on every noun, and you can't dodge it. You can't say "the book" without first choosing le or la. This is the single biggest difference between English and French at the beginner level. Don't fight it — just accept that every noun comes pre-married to an article.

Don't try to reason it out. La table is feminine. Le livre is masculine. La maison (house) is feminine, le château (castle) is masculine. There is no semantic logic — just learn each noun with its article, the way you learned to say "an apple" not "a apple".

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Part 2: Guess the gender by ending (70% hit rate)

There are endings that almost always point to a specific gender. This is your main tool — and many of these endings exist in English too, because they came over with the Normans in 1066.

Feminine endings

Ending	Gender	Examples	English cognate
-tion / -sion	f	la nation, la station, la décision	nation, station, decision
-té	f	la liberté, la beauté, la cité	liberty, beauty, city
-ée	f	la journée, la soirée, la pensée	(the day, evening — duration sense)
-ette	f	la baguette, la fourchette	(small/feminine diminutive)
-ance / -ence	f	la chance, la patience, la France	chance, patience
-ie	f	la boulangerie, la pharmacie, la vie	pharmacy, biology (= -y in English)
-ure	f	la voiture, la nature, la lecture	nature, lecture
-eur (abstract)	f	la couleur, la peur, la chaleur	(color, fear, heat — abstract qualities)

Masculine endings

Ending	Gender	Examples	English cognate
-ment	m	le moment, le gouvernement	moment, government
-age	m	le fromage, le voyage, le garage	voyage, garage, marriage
-eau	m	le bateau, le gâteau, le bureau	bureau
-isme	m	le tourisme, le réalisme	tourism, realism
-eur (person/agent)	m	le professeur, le chanteur	professor, (singer)
-ier	m	le boulanger, le cahier	(baker, notebook — agent/object)
-on (often)	m	le poisson, le citron	(fish, lemon)

English-speaker shortcut: if you see a word that looks like an English -tion, -sion, -ty, or -ence word, it's feminine 99% of the time: nation, station, université, distance. If you see -ment or -ism, it's masculine: gouvernement, tourisme. You already know a thousand French nouns through English — you just need to bolt on the right article.

Exceptions worth memorizing

• -age → m, BUT: la plage (beach), la cage, la page, l'image, la nage (swimming)
• -eau → m, BUT: l'eau (f — water), la peau (skin)
• -ée → f, BUT: le musée (museum), le lycée (high school)

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Part 3: Plurals — the marker is silent

The single most important fact: the plural -s is not pronounced. Le chat and les chats sound identical except for the article. The article is what tells your ear it's plural.

Singular	Plural	Pronunciation
le livre	les livres	"luh LEEVR" → "lay LEEVR"
la table	les tables	"lah TAHBL" → "lay TAHBL"
un chat	des chats	"uhn SHAH" → "day SHAH"
une maison	des maisons	"ewn meh-ZOHN" → "day meh-ZOHN"

English-speaker trap: in English, the plural is loud and clear — cat / cats, book / books. The -s is what you hear. In French, the -s is dead. Listen to the article, not the end of the noun. Le, la, l' → singular. Les, des → plural.

Liaison saves the plural — sometimes

If the noun starts with a vowel or a silent h, the final -s of the article wakes up as a z-sound. This is how you hear plurality with vowel-initial nouns:

• les amis → "lay-zah-MEE"
• des oiseaux → "day-zwah-ZOH"
• les hommes → "lay-zOHM"
• un oiseau → "uhn-wah-ZOH" (the n of un wakes up too)

When you hear the z appear between an article and a noun, you're hearing the plural. With consonant-initial nouns (les chats, des livres), there's nothing to wake up — the article does all the work.

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Part 4: Irregular plurals

Most nouns just take +s. But a handful of endings change shape. These are the ones English speakers stumble on because they look weird on the page.

Singular ending	Plural ending	Example
-s, -x, -z (already a "hiss")	no change	le bras → les bras; le nez → les nez; le prix → les prix
-eau	-eaux	le bateau → les bateaux; le gâteau → les gâteaux
-au	-aux	le tuyau → les tuyaux (pipes)
-eu	-eux	le cheveu → les cheveux (hair)
-al	-aux	le journal → les journaux; le cheval → les chevaux
-ail (usually)	-ails	le détail → les détails
-ail (special)	-aux	le travail → les travaux

Pronouncing -eaux and -aux: exactly like -eau and -au — just "oh". The -x is silent, same as -s. Les bateaux → "lay bah-TOH", les journaux → "lay zhoor-NOH". On the page it looks dramatic, on your ear it's nothing.

Sub-exceptions to know

• -al → +s (not -aux) for a small group: le bal, le carnaval, le festival, le récital → plurals just add -s.
• -eu → +s (not -eux): le pneu (tire) → les pneus, le bleu (bruise) → les bleus.

Bonus fully irregular ones: l'œil (eye) → les yeux (eyes). Monsieur → messieurs. Madame → mesdames. These you just have to know.

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Part 5: Numbers 20–100

Tens from 20 to 60 — sensible

20	30	40	50	60
vingt	trente	quarante	cinquante	soixante

Pronunciation: vingt "vahn" (nasal; the gt is silent), trente "trahnt", quarante "kah-RAHNT", cinquante "sank-AHNT", soixante "swah-SAHNT".

Tens from 70 to 90 — French does math

70	80	90
soixante-dix (60+10)	quatre-vingts (4×20)	quatre-vingt-dix (4×20+10)

The infamous French numbers. Yes, really: 70 is "sixty-ten", 80 is "four-twenties", 90 is "four-twenty-ten". And 97 is quatre-vingt-dix-sept — literally "four-twenty-ten-seven". This is a legacy of an old Celtic base-20 counting system. Belgium, Switzerland, and parts of Africa use the saner septante (70), huitante / octante (80), and nonante (90) — but in France, only this arithmetic version is accepted.

Compound numbers: the hyphen rule

Between a ten and a unit, you use a hyphen: trente-deux (32), quarante-cinq (45), soixante-huit (68).

But! Before 1 and 11, French uses et ("and") instead of a hyphen:

• 21 = vingt et un
• 31 = trente et un
• 41 = quarante et un
• 51 = cinquante et un
• 61 = soixante et un
• 71 = soixante et onze (because 71 = 60 + 11)

Exceptions: 81 and 91 — no et: quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-onze. (Possibly because they're already long enough.)

Full table 60–99

60 soixante	70 soixante-dix	80 quatre-vingts	90 quatre-vingt-dix
61 soixante et un	71 soixante et onze	81 quatre-vingt-un	91 quatre-vingt-onze
62 soixante-deux	72 soixante-douze	82 quatre-vingt-deux	92 quatre-vingt-douze
65 soixante-cinq	75 soixante-quinze	85 quatre-vingt-cinq	95 quatre-vingt-quinze
69 soixante-neuf	79 soixante-dix-neuf	89 quatre-vingt-neuf	99 quatre-vingt-dix-neuf

The little s on quatre-vingts

• quatre-vingts = exactly 80 (with s)
• quatre-vingt-deux = 82 (no s, because another number follows)

Same with cent: cent = 100, deux cents = 200, but deux cent un = 201 (no s). Rule of thumb: the s survives only if the multiplier-word ends the number.

Number 100

cent — "sahn" (nasal; the t is silent). Used with no article before a noun: cent euros, not un cent euros.

Before a vowel, liaison: cent ans → "sahn-t-AHN".

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