Why do french nouns have gender

This is typical of an animist vision of the world, of a time when rituals and beliefs were strongly attached to the natural elements.

The distinction disappeared bit by bit, ceding place to masculine and feminine, just as monotheistic religions were replacing animistic beliefs. Whereas the feminine was strongly associated with notions of force and power in pagan times, monotheistic religions associated them with masculinity. Arent J. Wensinck and Jean Markale are among the scholars who have put forth this idea, but it remains difficult to prove.

Much more evident and retrospectively traceable is the gradual dominance of the male gender. In Greek and Latin, the Rule of Proximity decided grammatical accord. Basically, this says that the verb is governed by the element nearest to it, e. Got it? Never mind. So it seems that grammatical gender is not primarily linked to our experience of the world.

Neither does it seem to be born of a true communicative need. It is instead a story of historical evolution, influenced by grammar, certainly, but above all by culture.

Unlike English, however, all French nouns also have a gender: masculine or feminine. No explanations exist as to why French nouns have a gender or how the gender of any noun was originally determined, so you cannot rely on a rule to guide you; however, certain endings do generally indicate a feminine or masculine noun.

For the most part, though, the gender of nouns must be memorized — through repetition, you can likely commit them to memory. Nouns that refer to males are always masculine and their female counterparts are always feminine, as shown in Table 1. Nouns that give you a hint. In some cases, the gender of a noun can be determined by its ending, as shown in Table 2. Consider the following nouns that can be either masculine or feminine, depending upon whom you are referring.

Make sure to use the proper article le , l' , un for masculine or la , l' , une for feminine before the noun.

Some nouns can be easily changed from one gender to another by adding an e to the masculine form to get the feminine form, as shown in Table 3. Nevertheless, this May, Haddad and his firm released an online manual that codified inclusive writing for corporations and institutions. He believes that inclusive writing can successfully help businesses deal with gender inequality. The Observatory of Inequalities, a private organization, estimates that French men continue to earn, on average, There are other signs that the campaign to normalize inclusive writing is working: In late , Microsoft Word released the newest version of its platform, which now has an inclusive writing option in French.

The move will please not only the proponents of inclusive writing, but also the speakers of minority languages in France like Catalan, Occitan, and Gascon , who have always used the median-period as a phonetic marker. If France is serious about gender equality, there may be more efficient ways to get there than inclusive writing. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic. Popular Latest. The Atlantic Crossword. Sign In Subscribe. Alia Wong.