You have to keep in mind that French is a much more ‘gendered’ language than English, so we tend to use the feminine version of the word as long as there is one. Using ‘hero’ when the sex of the ...
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Do we have to say “une monster” or “un monster” while talking about the energy drink?
Business EditorsIt is “un monster”. I think you can guess by according it to the drink name. Like un soda, un thé, un café, une bière etc. Using the generic underlying word to figure out the gender is a sound practice ...
Noms propres : Comment détermine-t-on leur genre ?
Business EditorsQue Le Saint Jean soit un café ou une brasserie, comme Jean est un nom masculin on dira : Je vais manger au Saint Jean Que La Coupole soit un café ou une brasserie, on dira : Je vais à ...
“J’ai chaud”: why is saying “j’ai chaude” wrong?
Associations EditorsYes, in that sentence “chaud” is a noun that means “heat”, and as such its gender does not depend on who is feeling hot. Notice that the verb is avoir (to have), not être (to be). We don’t say “I ...
Does the word personne make the personal pronouns feminine?
Business EditorsYes, pronouns referring to a substantive must agree with it. However, you can switch genders if the pronouns no more directly refer to the substantive but to something/someone of a different gender. So the adjectives must agree with the substantive ...
Why ‘The tie’ or ‘La cravate’ is feminine in French?
Associations EditorsI’d wager that’s because in French, baring other factors (e.g. certain suffixes), nontechnical words whose pronunciation ends in /-at/ tends to be strongly feminine. If that specific sense was borrowed from German, it’s probably borrowed in the same gender (Krawatte ...
Résidence un/une, partie un/une
Business EditorsJ’habite à résidence un/une est incorrect. On peut dire: J’habite [à] la résidence numéro un ou J’habite [à] la résidence un[e] ou j’habite la première résidence. Idem pour La partie un/une de cours est le plus difficile La première partie ...
What are the French equivalents of “germophobia”, “germophobic”, and “a germophobe”?
Associations EditorsMysophobe/mysophobie wouldn’t be understood at all by most if not all people in France. Germophobe/germophobie would be better, but I guess some people would think these words are related to Germany. A couple of words sometimes used, especially this year, ...
Comment traduire “milk”
Associations EditorsIl faudrait que vous donniez plus de contexte au terme “milk” car le mot n’a pas beaucoup d’usages en anglais. A part lait,” “milk” peut vouloir dire: extraire ou traire (dans le cas où l’on extrait du lait d’un animal), ...
Are nouns derived from verbs (e.g. devoir) always masculine?
Business EditorsYes there are many nouns derived from verbs : Le bon vouloir Le coucher Le déjeuner / le dîner / le souper Le savoir etc. This pages affirms that infinitive verbs used as nouns are neither masculine nor feminine but ...