Féminins

Féminins refers to the feminine grammatical gender in French. In French grammar, feminine is a category applied to nouns, adjectives, determiners and some pronouns. The plural form féminins is used when talking about feminine nouns in general or when listing them.

Nouns in French are assigned gender, which is largely lexical and not strictly tied to biological sex. Many feminine nouns denote female beings, such as femme (woman) and fille (girl), while others denote inanimate objects, such as voiture (car) and maison (house). There are no universal rules that determine gender from meaning alone, and learners often must memorize the gender of each noun.

Common feminine suffixes include -ette, -ion, -té, -ance, -ence, -ure, -esse, -ière, and -ine, but these are not deterministic. Many nouns with these endings are feminine, yet there are notable exceptions. Conversely, the absence of these endings does not guarantee masculinity. Adjectives and determiners must agree with the gender of the nouns they modify: une petite fille, le petit livre, les grandes maisons.

Agreement rules extend to plural forms, where adjectives and articles take corresponding plural endings: la fille intelligente, les filles intelligentes; le livre intéressant, les livres intéressants. In practice, feminine agreement is a core aspect of French syntax and morphology, influencing pronunciation, spelling, and sentence rhythm.

Beyond French, the notion of feminine gender appears in many languages with varying patterns and endings. While feminine formsoften align with female semantics, many languages also assign feminine gender to inanimate nouns, leading to diverse historical and linguistic developments.