Slide 1 : Cathedral Ste-Leonce Now, let’s talk about the GENDER OF NAMES.
In French all nouns have a gender, masculine or feminine.
For an English-speaking person, that is a real difficulty.
How do I know the gender of the word I want to use …?
In fact, there are no rules, except one : every time you learn a new vocabulary, you need to learn its gender.
My advice : go to www.wordchamp.com, register with them (free !), and start creating your flashcards. And systematically add the gender in brackets after the name (m or f)
Ex : une voiture (f), un avion (m), un escalier (m), un lit (m), une orange (f)
Some people would recommend to check with suffixes and words endings in order to get an idea of what the gender can be … Yes, it can help you, but as always beware of possible confusions : ex we say un squelette (m) but une allumette (f)
Once you get used to write down a name and its gender, you finally will be able to memorize with no difficulty at all.
But you need to do it as from the very beginning of your training.
Slide 2 : List of French names having two genders
In the French language, you may find words having two genders, each one having a special meaning.
Un aide (male assistant)
Une aide (help, assistance from another person, or female assistant)
Un capital (money) une capitale (capital city) Le chêvre (goat cheese) la chêvre (goat)
Un crème (coffee with cream) la crème (cream)
Le gène (gene) la gêne (embarrassment, trouble)
Le gîte (shelter) la gîte (inclination of a ship)
Le livre (book) la livre (pound: money & weight)
Le manche (handle) la manche (sleeve)
Le mode (way, method) la mode (fashion)
Le mousse (moussaillon = petit mousse) ship’s boy as apprentice
La mousse (foam, froth,moss)
Le moule (mold) la moule (mussel)
Slide 3 : A FEW FRENCH HOMOPHONES
Homophones are words which are pronounced the same way, but with a different meaning, and sometimes with a different spelling. For instance : The letter a can be the 1st letter in our alphabet
Can be verb avoir conjugated at present tense, 3rd person singular il…. elle a
Can be the preposition à (but with an accent)
Une amande (almond) and une amende (road fine)
An (année) year and en (adverbial pronoun, or preposition)
O = the letter o, eau (water) oh ! (interjection), au or aux (contraction of à + le or à + les in the plural)
Un autel (altar) and un hôtel (hotel)
Un avocat (fruit avocado) and un avocat (lawyer)
La faim (hunger) and la fin (the end) Le basilic (basil) and la basilique (basilica)
Le filtre (filter) and le philtre (love potion)
Le saut (jump), le sceau (seal), un seau (bucket), sot (adj. Stupid, dumb)
Slide 4 : Old Roman arenas in Frejus TRUE AND FALSE COGNATES
(Les bons amis et les faux-amis)
As you will learn gradually the true cognates as they appear in your training, I will talk only here about the others, considered as one of the biggest pitfalls for beginners in French. The list is long as examples are numerous, so check first if you need to translate a text.
Slide 5 : AVOID CONFUSION BETWEEN « AVOIR » (to have) and « ETRE » (to be)
In French, there are lots of expressions where you need to get the correct auxiliary verb, which is the opposite in English.
For instance, when you refer to « how old are you » In English you use the verb to be, but in French we use the verb avoir (to have)
How old are you ? I am ……… = Quel âge avez-vous ? J’ai ……… ans
More examples with :
Avoir chaud/froid = to be hot/cold
Avoir faim/soif = to be hungry/thirsty
Avoir peur de = to be scared of
Avoir honte de = to be ashamed of
Avoir le mal de mer = to be seasick
Avoir tort/raison = to be wrong/right
Avoir sommeil = to be sleepy
En avoir marre/assez = to be fed up