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.
masculine : un porc
Oeuf is a French word. It is masculine.
China is la Chine (feminine noun), in French.
The French have feminine and masculine words for African: africain (noun or adjective, masculine) and africaine (noun or adjective, 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.
you put le or du in front of masculine words, and you put la or de la in front of feminine words
masculine
The french word "la" is a feminine word, in fact, it is the state of all the feminine words in french.
feminine
masculine
Feminine