Understanding Le Genre et Nombre des Noms/Adjectifs in French: A Guide for Hindi Speakers (A1 Level)

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

If you are starting your French learning journey, one of the fundamental topics you must master early on is “Le genre et nombre des noms et adjectifs” — that is, the gender and number of nouns and adjectives. This concept is essential because, unlike English, French nouns and adjectives change depending on whether they are masculine or feminine and singular or plural.

In this blog post, we will explore this topic deeply and clearly. Since you are a native Hindi speaker, I will also compare French grammar rules with Hindi structures to help you understand better. Let’s get started!

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What Does “Le Genre” Mean in French?

In French, every noun has a gender: it is either masculine (masculin) or feminine (féminin). This gender affects how adjectives are used and how articles like “the” or “a” are written.

Why Gender Matters?

Because adjectives and articles must agree with the noun’s gender. For example:

• Un chat noir (A black cat – masculine)
• Une chatte noire (A black cat – feminine)

Here, “chat” (cat) is masculine, so the adjective “noir” is in masculine form. For the feminine “chatte,” the adjective changes to “noire” to agree in gender.

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What is “Le Nombre” in French?

French nouns and adjectives also change according to number:

• Singular (one thing)
• Plural (more than one)

The plural usually involves adding an -s, but pronunciation and spelling rules vary.

For example:

• Un livre (one book) → Des livres (books)
• Une maison (one house) → Des maisons (houses)

Adjectives also change:

• Un livre intéressant → Des livres intéressants
• Une maison blanche → Des maisons blanches

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Comparing French Gender and Number with Hindi

Hindi nouns also have gender (linguistic gender: masculine/feminine), and adjectives agree accordingly. However, unlike French, Hindi does not have articles like “the” or “a.” The number agreement exists in Hindi but behaves a bit differently.

For example, in Hindi:

• लड़का अच्छा है (Ladka achha hai) — The boy is good (masculine singular)
• लड़की अच्छी है (Ladki achhi hai) — The girl is good (feminine singular)
• लड़के अच्छे हैं (Ladke acche hain) — Boys are good (masculine plural)
• लड़कियाँ अच्छी हैं (Ladkiyaan achhi hain) — Girls are good (feminine plural)

This is similar to French adjective agreement in gender and number.

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Detailed Rules of Gender and Number in French

1. Gender Rules (Le Genre)

• Masculine nouns often end with consonants or vowels like -eau, -age, -ment (e.g., le garçon, le bateau, le village).
• Feminine nouns often end with -e, -tion, -sion, -té (e.g., la fille, la nation, la décision, la liberté).

Note: There are exceptions, and sometimes nouns change meaning with gender.

2. Number Rules (Le Nombre)

• To make most nouns plural, add -s (e.g., chat → chats).
• If the noun ends with -s, -x, or -z, it stays the same in plural (e.g., un choix → des choix).
• Nouns ending in -al usually change to -aux in plural (e.g., un animal → des animaux).

3. Adjective Agreement

• For feminine singular, add -e to the masculine adjective (if it doesn’t already end in -e).
• For masculine plural, add -s.
• For feminine plural, add -es.

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Examples with Word-by-Word Translation and Pronunciation (Hinglish)

French Sentence	English Translation	Pronunciation (Hinglish)
Le chat noir est petit.	The cat black is small.	Le sha noar e ptee
La chatte noire est petite.	The cat (female) black is small (female).	La shat nwaar e pteet
Les chats noirs sont petits.	The cats black are small.	Le sha noar son ptee
Les chattes noires sont petites.	The cats (female) black are small (female).	Le shat nwaar son pteet

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Summary Chart: Gender and Number Agreement in French

Noun Gender	Singular Article + Noun + Adj.	Plural Article + Noun + Adj.
Masculine	le chat noir (the black cat)	les chats noirs (the black cats)
Feminine	la chatte noire (the black cat)	les chattes noires (the black cats)

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