{"id":928,"date":"2010-06-18T05:44:37","date_gmt":"2010-06-18T05:44:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=928"},"modified":"2017-10-18T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T13:41:00","slug":"quiz-masculine-or-feminine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/quiz-masculine-or-feminine\/","title":{"rendered":"Quiz: Masculine or feminine?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Le ou la?<\/em><\/strong> (Le <\/em>or la <\/em>?)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. ___ po\u00e8me<\/li>\n
  2. ___ Mexique (too soon\u00a0? D\u00e9sol\u00e9e, les Bleus\u00a0!)<\/li>\n
  3. ___ Cambodge (Cambodia)<\/li>\n
  4. ___ probl\u00e8me<\/li>\n
  5. ___ programme<\/li>\n
  6. ___ th\u00e8me<\/li>\n
  7. ___ lyc\u00e9e\u00a0 (secondary school, high school)<\/li>\n
  8. ___ cimeti\u00e8re (cemetery)<\/li>\n
  9. ___ mus\u00e9e (museum)<\/li>\n
  10. ___ stade (stadium)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Ready\u00a0? I\u2019m betting (je parie) <\/em>that a lot of you got 10 out of 10\u2026 wrong.<\/p>\n

    All of these words end in e<\/strong>, but (spoiler alert) they are all masculine<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

    \u201cInjuste!\u201d vous criez<\/em>. \u201cNo fair!\u201d I know. French gives us precious few r\u00e8gles <\/em>(rules), and one of them is that words that end in \u2018e\u2019 are generally feminine<\/strong>. (Like my name!) These words and a few others, however, defy that suggestion.<\/p>\n

    Why bother with a list of ten words, when there is a whole language to learn? Because French is unfaithful to most of its \u201crules.\u201d Just like your teacher said, the only way is to memorize<\/strong> it, word by word. Learn these ten, and you\u2019ll have them. Il n\u2019y a pas de raccourci<\/strong><\/em> (there is no shortcut).<\/p>\n

    For me, masculin\/ f\u00e9minin <\/em>can be paralyzing. Even if I know all the words to say something, I am nervous about giving myself away as an amateur by slipping up and asking about la programme<\/em>. There are two ways to tackle this, in ascending order of importance.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Memorize<\/strong>. Read<\/strong> in French (ce blog, le journal, des livres)<\/em>, listen<\/strong> to music, watch<\/strong> movies sous-titr\u00e9s en fran\u00e7ais <\/em>(subtitled in French)\u2014anything to expose yourself to French, so you can absorb the articles (le\/la<\/em>). If you have the discipline for flashcards, allez-y et f\u00e9licitations<\/em> (go ahead and congratulations!).<\/li>\n
    2. Get over it<\/strong>. It\u2019s so much more important to speak <\/strong>than to speak perfectly. Will people be mean to you? Sometimes, but it\u2019s funny.\u00a0 Will they judge you for getting it wrong? Yes, but also for nine hundred other things, so who cares? Is any of that more important than you getting better at French<\/strong>, and is speaking the best way to achieve that? I think you know where I stand on that, and I hope you stand with me.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Je vous offre ce liste <\/em>because I love these words and this exception to the rule, but also to make the point that French is tricky. Mastering the tricks is one of the great joys of learning a language. See if you can m\u00e9moriser ces dix mots <\/em><\/strong>(these ten words), and (more importantly) promise yourself that you\u2019ll use them even if you forget.<\/p>\n

      But even if you get it right, \u201cVive le Mexique\u201d is probably not something you want to say for a while. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

      PS If you’re really a champion memorizer or you want to know more,\u00a0this<\/a> is a great review of masculine\/feminine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

      Le ou la? (Le or la ?) ___ po\u00e8me ___ Mexique (too soon\u00a0? D\u00e9sol\u00e9e, les Bleus\u00a0!) ___ Cambodge (Cambodia) ___ probl\u00e8me ___ programme ___ th\u00e8me ___ lyc\u00e9e\u00a0 (secondary school, high school) ___ cimeti\u00e8re (cemetery) ___ mus\u00e9e (museum) ___ stade (stadium) Ready\u00a0? I\u2019m betting (je parie) that a lot of you got 10 out of 10\u2026…<\/p>\n

      Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,13],"tags":[2906,359202,9584,9582,2993,130,9583],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","category-vocabulary","tag-feminine","tag-grammar","tag-hard-earned-insight","tag-le-mexique","tag-masculine","tag-quiz","tag-tintin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t