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Il sera *féminin* ou *masculin* en français.

8 votes

How to say ‘it’ when ‘it’ has no defined gender?

I would tend to say that your question is based on a false assumption: "it has no defined gender" - this situation should never happen in French at all as all nouns have a definite gender. But yeah, …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k
11 votes
7 answers
6k views

Peut-on dire « une auteure »?

Manifestement, ni le TLF ni l'Académie n'acceptent le terme, et Google n'est pas particulièrement enthousiaste non plus. Cependant, il semblerait que l'usage d'une auteure soit commun au Québec et qu …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k
11 votes
Accepted

« Le Loyre » de Joachim du Bellay

Quant à l'utilisation du masculin... peut-être que le genre du nom n'était pas encore bien fixé à l'époque? Ou qu'il considérait que tous les fleuves devaient être masculins? …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k
13 votes
Accepted

What is the feminine for “amour”?

A man will call his wife mon amour as well. It's the same as if they call one another my love. The word doesn't become feminine because you apply it to a woman. Both would say: Mon amour, tu as pe …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k
14 votes

Given the lack of a gender-neutral pronoun in French, how should one refer to somebody of un...

When I was at school, we were told to start letters with Cher Monsieur if we didn't know the gender of the person we were writing to. At the time, I believe the rule was to assume masculine until prov …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k
9 votes
Accepted

Why "vous pouvez LUI acheter une montre" when we are talking about a female person?

Non, parce que lui est ici un pronom personnel des deux genres, qui signifie à lui ou à elle. Tu ne peux pas dire Vous pouvez elle acheter une montre. (incorrect) Parce qu'il manque le à. Par …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k
6 votes

Why "Je viens de l'acheter" even if we have just bought "un livre"?

You are right about the vowel part, consider these two examples: Du pain (instead of "de le pain") But: De l'alcool ("alcool" is also masculine, yet "du alcool" is incorrect) However, in y …
Joubarc's user avatar
  • 14.7k