One difficulty of learning the French language is the rules concerning gender. In this language, nouns and articles have gender and constructing a sentence (or even the whole paragraph) can be challenging.

Here are some techniques you should know when mastering the gender rules of French.

The person matters - If the person is feminine for example, use the corresponding form. For instance, "She is kissing a male cyclist" is "Elle embrasse un cycliste" in French. Notice the French word for "cyclist" (cycliste) is in masculine form.

There are nouns that will always be in one gender - Examples of nouns that will always be masculine include "le savant" (a wise person) and "le pilot" (pilot). Other constant masculine words include days of the week, names of months, and seasons like "le samedi" (Saturday); language names like "le suédois" (Swedish); colors like "le rose" (pink); numbers and letters like "le quatre" (four); Metric units of measure like "le litre" (liter); trees like "le bananier" (banana tree); and names of wines and cheeses like "le gruyère". Constant feminine nouns include "le capitaine" (captain) and "la vedette" (star) as well as fruits like "la pêche" (peach); academic disciplines like "la chimie" (chemistry); cars like "une peugeot"; and watches like "une casio".

Some animals have a particular gender - Not all animals have a masculine and feminine word like "un taureau" (bull) and "une vache" (cow). These are instead describe in a single gender no matter what sex the animal is. Examples of these include "le zèbre" (zebra), "le hibou" (owl), "la girafe" (giraffe), and "l'huître" (oyster).

Expect all nouns to be masculine - Unless they end in a mute "e", it is considered masculine. However, there are words that end in a mute "e" and is still considered masculine. Examples of these are those that end in "-ge", "-ele", "-me", and "-re". In contrast, there are words that don't end with a mute "e" and yet are feminine, especially those that end in "-on", "-é", and "-eur".