For example, if you were describing a female dog would you use il or elle? Where I live people describe female dogs using "il" and I'm not sure if that's because they don't care about the dogs gender or because "dog" in French is a masculine noun, and so even a female dog would be referred to as "il".
3 Answers
It's not correct to use "il". If the name is femimine the pronoun has to be "elle".
- La chienne a mal à la patte, elle boite de plus en plus et elle gémit.
In French it is not very natural to say "un chien femelle". Here is for example what can be gathered from Histoire lexicographique ou Diction,naire Français Flamand from 1846 (Jacob F.J. Heremans, Philippe Olinger).
However, if this page of Google examples shows many false positives, there are cases of use of "chien femelle".
Example
(La Chine: Journal de Pékin (1963-2008)) un chien femelle et un chien mâle, la femelle que l'on voit au bout du dessin remarque que le mâle est adorable, qu'elle est amoureuse de lui, et le chien mâle dit : « Elle est pas mal celle-là, mais elle n'a pas l'air très intelligente ...
Corresponding to this use you can use "il" because the term is masculine ("chien" is head word) and if the discussion is not concerned with the female characteristics of the animal, but you can also assume right away that it is a female, a bitch, and use "elle".
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1+1, you can also use "il" when you don't know or care about the dog's gender. Commented May 9, 2023 at 8:19
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1I would add this is true for pets, but for example we don't do this for "une girafe", "un hippopotame", "une chouette", ... Commented May 9, 2023 at 8:59
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2Is it acceptable in all places to use "chienne" to talk of your female pet, even though it can mean bitch?– jari85Commented May 9, 2023 at 9:23
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@aamart01 in Québec we have a couple expressions, "avoir la chienne", or "c'est chien", (there may even be the more historical "fils de chienne") which are all pejorative, but not nearly as bad as the English "bitch". If, on the other hand, you say "c'est ma chienne" for "that's my dog", no negative connotation is involved. Commented May 9, 2023 at 21:24
LPH answer is very detailed and accurate.
From experience, we tend to use il/elle depending on the animal gender. If one does not have this information, we tend to use il/elle based on the species gender.
I hope it makes sense.
EDIT: This is true for pet, as mentioned by @Flying_whale.
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1Could you give an example to clarify? For example, for a giraffe (une girafe), if you know the particular giraffe is a boy, then would you use "il" to refer to it in conversation, despite it being "une girafe" grammatically? I heard at least one French speaker say that for example, for "une chèvre" that he would naturally use elle to refer to that animal, even if it happens to be a male chèvre.– BrandinCommented May 9, 2023 at 9:15
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Technically, a male chèvre is a bouc ... But I understand what you are trying to say. In the case of a giraffe, I have to say that I would go for une girafe all the time but I never meet this. Therefore, my comment may be misleading. This has to work with common animals .. or pets. EDIT: I have just seen Flying_whale's comment above and she is right. My remark is true for pets.– KrKAlexCommented May 9, 2023 at 9:20
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2I have never heard/read le vieux girafe for example. However, la vieille chienne and le vieux chat are definitely common use. Once again, now that I made up my mind, we use the animal's gender for pets and species gender for all other animals. I do not have enough reputation to reply to your comment on LPH's answer, but yes, you can use chienne even though it means "bitch" and same for chatte while it means "pussy". In practice, I tend to add the surname of the dog after to avoid confusion.– KrKAlexCommented May 9, 2023 at 9:25
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3I would use il. An example: "La girafe mâle rejoint son lieu de prédilection pour y retrouver ses petits. Il apporte le soutien nécessaire à la girafe pour accompagner les premiers pas effectués par les girafons" Sorry, I am not so inspired.– KrKAlexCommented May 9, 2023 at 9:49
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2In addition to all this, a number of native French speakers often have to be corrected regarding similar species that are gendered differently: la grenouille n'est pas la femelle du crapaud et la chouette n'est pas la femelle du hibou.– BrunoCommented May 9, 2023 at 16:13
We use the gender of the noun used to name the animal if its gender is unknown or irrelevant. This noun gender is often masculine but can be feminine too.
- Un chien, il
- Un cheval, il
- Une souris, elle
- Une belette, elle
If the animal gender is known/relevant and a form matching it exists, it will be used:
- Une chienne, elle
- Une jument, elle
If the noun only has a single gender, we will use it and specify the actual gender if needed:
- Une souris mâle, elle
- Une araignée femelle, elle
- Une girafe mâle (then the pronoun used would often be elle unless we formally switch to the masculine by saying le mâle)
- Une belette mâle, elle
- Un crabe femelle, il (or une femelle crabe, elle)
Sometimes, even if the feminine noun exists, the masculine might also be used:
- Un éléphant femelle, il or elle = une éléphante, elle
La sentinelle s'était endormie. Il(Elle) fut révéillé(e) par le sergent (*The sentinel had fallen asleep. The sergeant woke him up.*). If the context clearly establish that the sentinel is a man, both "il" and "elle" are acceptable. If the sex is unknown, then it's "elle", because "sentinelle" is feminine.