One example would be vase.
"Un vase" is a vase, used for holding flowers.
"La vase" is the fine mud found at the bottom of rivers.
This is unusual because the change of gender completely alters the meaning.
The word "eleve" can be masculine or feminine according to the gender of the student concerned, but it is always a student.
all nouns are either a masculine or feminine gender in French.
- some words have specific differences : un chien, une chienne (a dog and she-dog) - un infirmier, une infirmière (a male nurse, a female nurse), un acteur, une actrice (actor, actress)
- some words are used without any change : un professeur, une professeur
- for jobs and occupations where a specific feminine noun didn't exist, the 1990 reform introduced the possibility to 'feminize' the word: un auteur (an author) can now be spelled in the feminine by writing 'une auteure' (though most people still balk at these spellings)
That means that you just have to get acquainted to the noun gender. For example 'la lune' is feminine, and 'le soleil' is a masculine noun.
un chien (male dog or any dog), une chienne (she-dog)
Feminine
verbs have no gender in French. Only nouns and adjectives can be masculine or feminine.
Oeuf is a French word. It is masculine.
masculine : un porc
China is la Chine (feminine noun), in French.
The French word for African is "Africain" when used for masculine and "Africaine" when used for feminine.
Bicyclette is feminine. In words ending in "ette" in French, are feminine.
In French, you can often identify feminine words by the presence of the suffixes such as -e, -ion, -tion, -té, -elle, -ude, etc. However, the best way to learn the gender of a word is to memorize it along with the vocabulary.
Feminine
une dent is a feminine noun in French.
Words ending '-ion' are always feminine.
In French, adjectives and articles must agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they modify. This means that the ending of the word may change to match the noun's gender. For example, "petit" becomes "petite" for feminine nouns. Verbs may also change according to the gender of the subject in some tenses.
masculine
The French word "la" is a feminine article used before feminine nouns.
feminine
masculine
Feminine