French grammar
Le vs la: French noun gender explained
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and the article in front of it changes to match: le chat but la maison, un livre but une pizza. The gender belongs to the word, not to the thing, so there is no shortcut from meaning. Learn each noun with its article, and the rest of French grammar (adjectives, possessives, contractions) falls into place behind it.
In short
- le before a masculine noun, la before a feminine one: le chat, la maison. The gender is a property of the word, not of the thing.
- un and une follow the same split: un livre, une pizza. Know one side and you have both pairs.
- Before a vowel or silent h, le and la both shorten to l': l'école, l'hôtel. The l' hides the gender; un hôtel and une école give it back.
- Endings are a hint, not a rule: musée ends in -ée and is still masculine, le musée.
The two sides
Every French noun is masculine or feminine, and it keeps that side for good. Masculine nouns take «le»: «le chat», the cat. Feminine nouns take «la»: «la musique». Meaning is no guide (a table is feminine, a book is masculine), so learn each noun together with its le or la, like a first name.
Le chat
the cat
La musique
the music
Ça va bien
it's going well
Le chien
the dog
Never learn a side twice
«un», the number one, is also 'a' for masculine nouns: «un livre», a book. Feminine nouns take «une» (oon): «une pizza». The sides are the same as le/la, so once you know a word's gender, both pairs are yours. «Un café ?» is literally 'one coffee' and 'a coffee' at once.
Un livre
a book
Une pizza
a pizza
Je ne comprends pas
I don't understand
La pizza
the pizza
The squeeze
Some words open with a vowel, and le/la can't stand next to one — they squeeze to «l'»: «l'école» — the school. You know this move: d'où, j'aime, n'aime. It even swallows a silent h: «l'hôtel» — the hotel (oh-TELL). One catch: «l'» hides the word's side — but «une école» and «un hôtel» give the secret away.
L'école
the school
L'hôtel
the hotel
C'est une école
it's a school
Il y a un café
there's a café
C'est un hôtel
it's a hotel
Je n'aime pas le café
I don't like coffee.
J'aime l'école
I like school
Practice this in Open Lingo
This page comes from the Open Lingo course. In the app it is a short interactive lesson with listening, speaking and spaced-repetition review. Free, and no account needed to try it.
Keep going
- Grammar guideFrench pluralsHow French plurals work: les for the, des for some, why the plural -s is silent, the partitive du and de la, and the z sound of liaison.
- Grammar guideFrench adjective agreement and positionHow French adjectives agree with the noun (grand, grande), which ones go before the noun (BANGS) and how they behave after est, with course examples.
- Word listFood and drink vocabularyBeginner French words for food, drink and the café, with gender (le/la) and audio from the Open Lingo course.
- ToolNumbers 1 to 100 and converterEvery French number from 0 to 100 in a printable table, a converter that writes out any number up to 999,999, and the rules behind 70, 80, 90 and et un.