Language/French/Grammar/Gender-of-makes-of-vehicle-and-machines
[Updated]
Nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. Unfortunately, there are no easy rules for predicting the gender of a noun. However, it is not necessary to learn all genders by heart as there are certain models that can be used to predict the genre with varying degrees of accuracy. Be careful to remember that there are always exceptions to these models.
Usually, the gender of vehicle or machine brands, like cars, trucks, airplanes, lawnmowers, dishwashers, etc. is the same as the gender of the general name of the vehicle or machine.
Voiture[edit | edit source]
"Une voiture" (car) is feminine, so brands of cars are feminine too:
- une Citroën
- une Nissan
- une Peugeot
- une Renault
- une Ford
- une Fiat
Moto[edit | edit source]
"Une moto" (a motorcycle) is feminine, so brands of motorcycles are feminine too:
- Une Yamaha
- Une Honda
Camion[edit | edit source]
"Un camion" (truck) is masculine, so brands of trucks are masculine too:
- un Foden
- un Berliet
- un pickup (sometimes the English names are used)
Avion[edit | edit source]
"Un avion" (an airplane) is masculine, so types of planes are masculine too:
- Un Airbus A320
- Un Boeing 747
Cuisinière[edit | edit source]
"Une cuisinière" (cooker) is feminine, so makes of cooker are feminine:
- une Belling
- une Arthur Martin
etc.
Gender of Nouns (all lessons)[edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Subject verb agreement — Verb agreement with fractions
- Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives — A change in written, but not spoken
- Function of adverbs
- Punctuation
- Use of neutral le where no equivalent exists in English
- Agreement of the past participle with the subject of “être”
- Pronominal Verbs Agreement
- Use of faire + partitive faire du, de la
- Relations between verbs and their complements
- Subject verb agreement — Agreement with more than one subject
- Difference between Nombre, Chiffre and Numéro
- Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Order of cardinal numbers and adjectives
- Use of y
- “être” and “avoir” with verbs used intransitively and transitively
- How to use Have