How to determine whether a word is masculine or feminine ?

Question

Since I am a beginner, I want to know how to differentiate a word that is masculine or feminine and is there any hint to differentiate it?

Under what pattern they have differentiated it?

How and why the word is classified as masculine and feminine?

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

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Knowing the gender before translating into french
When translating from english (for instance), there is no rule to know if the word will be feminine or masculine in french.
You have to know it by heart.
Sorry.

Knowing gender from the word itself If you are reading a french word, you may have clues on the ending of the word, which you may see on the linked question

Origins
It may come from Latin or Roman. You may see the same behavior with Italian, German, Spanish... This is not specific to French.
You may see an article on it here on chapter Les systèmes de genres

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

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answered Mar 22 '16 at 13:46

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do you know the reason of that classification – Madhusudhanan Mar 22 '16 at 13:47

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

2

There is no simple or reliable rule but often, a word ending helps figuring out what its gender might be. See https://french.stackexchange.com/a/16781/1109

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

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answered Mar 22 '16 at 14:27

jlliagre

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 22 '16 at 20:58

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In general, learning the associated determiner is a good strategy...

answered Mar 22 '16 at 20:58

GAM PUB

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How to determine whether a word is masculine or feminine ?

3 Answers3