étudiantes

Étudiantes is the feminine plural noun in French used to designate female students. It is the feminine form of étudiante, which names a person who studies or is enrolled as a student. The masculine counterparts are étudiant (singular) and étudiants (plural); the feminine singular is étudiante.

In usage, étudiantes refers to a group of women who study at a university, college, or other educational institution. It agrees in gender and number with determiners: les étudiantes, des étudiantes. For groups that include men, the masculine plural étudiants is used.

Common phrases include des étudiantes en médecine, la vie des étudiantes, and une étudiante brillante. The term is widely found in academic writing, journalism, and everyday speech when the gendered aspect of student life is being emphasized.

Etymology: The word étudiante derives from étudier, the verb “to study,” and the agent-noun formation that yields étudiant in the masculine. The feminine form étudiante is created by adding the feminine ending -e to the masculine form, and the plural étudiantes adds -es. This reflects the broader pattern of gender and number agreement in French nouns and adjectives.