Here are 100 everyday French nouns for people, time, home, town, travel and nature, each with le, la or l'. Learn these five first: le jour (day), la maison (house), l'ami (friend), la ville (town) and le travail (work). Then use the endings in the first section to guess the gender of new nouns.
- Words
- 100, each with le, la or l'
- Topics
- people, time, home, town, travel, nature
- Variety
- France French (l'appartement, le magasin)
- Level
- A1
100 everyday French nouns
Every noun is listed with its article, because in French the gender changes the words around it. The Contos web app uses this pack for flashcard review.
| French | English |
|---|---|
| le temps | time |
| le jour | day |
| la semaine | week |
| le mois | month |
| l'année | year |
| le matin | morning |
| la nuit | night |
| la minute | minute |
| le week-end | weekend |
| l'anniversaire | birthday |
| les vacances | holiday |
| la personne | person |
| l'homme | man |
| la femme | woman |
| l'enfant | child |
| le garçon | boy |
| la fille | girl |
| l'ami | friend |
| la famille | family |
| la mère | mother |
| le père | father |
| le voisin | neighbour |
| le professeur | teacher |
| le médecin | doctor |
| la maison | house |
| l'appartement | flat |
| la pièce | room |
| la porte | door |
| la fenêtre | window |
| la table | table |
| la chaise | chair |
| le lit | bed |
| la cuisine | kitchen |
| le jardin | garden |
| l'horloge | clock |
| la clé | key |
| le sac | bag |
| le livre | book |
| la lettre | letter |
| la photo | photo |
| la carte | map |
| le téléphone | phone |
| l'ordinateur | computer |
| le cadeau | gift |
| la chose | thing |
| l'argent | money |
| la ville | city |
| le village | village |
| la rue | street |
| le magasin | shop |
| le parc | park |
| l'école | school |
| la bibliothèque | library |
| le cinéma | cinema |
| l'hôtel | hotel |
| la gare | station |
| le bureau | office |
| la voiture | car |
| le bus | bus |
| le train | train |
| l'avion | aeroplane |
| le vélo | bicycle |
| le billet | ticket |
| le voyage | trip |
| la mer | sea |
| la plage | beach |
| la rivière | river |
| le lac | lake |
| la montagne | mountain |
| la forêt | forest |
| l'arbre | tree |
| la fleur | flower |
| le ciel | sky |
| le soleil | sun |
| l'étoile | star |
| le chien | dog |
| le chat | cat |
| l'oiseau | bird |
| le nom | name |
| le mot | word |
| la langue | language |
| la question | question |
| la réponse | answer |
| l'histoire | story |
| la chanson | song |
| le film | film |
| le jeu | game |
| la fête | party |
| l'idée | idea |
| le travail | work |
| la vie | life |
| le monde | world |
| le pays | country |
| l'endroit | place |
| la main | hand |
| l'œil | eye |
| la tête | head |
| le cœur | heart |
| le rêve | dream |
| le message | message |
Is it le or la? Endings that give the gender away
No rule covers every French noun, but endings get you a long way. These patterns hold for most of the list; the exceptions in the right-hand column are worth learning as pairs.
| Ending | Gender | From the list | Exceptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| -age | masculine | le village, le voyage, le message | la plage, la page, l'image |
| -eau | masculine | le cadeau, le bureau, l'oiseau | l'eau and la peau are feminine |
| -ment | masculine | l'appartement | nothing common |
| -ée | feminine | l'année, l'idée | le musée, le lycée |
| -tion, -sion | feminine | la question | nothing common |
| -ière, -ure | feminine | la rivière, la voiture | nothing in this list |
Some nouns break the patterns you'd expect. La main is feminine although nouns in -ain are usually masculine. La fleur is feminine, but le cœur is masculine. La photo is short for la photographie, so it stays feminine despite the -o.
When l' hides the gender
About a fifth of the list starts with a vowel or a silent h, so the article is just l'. Check these with un or une: feminine are l'année, l'école, l'horloge, l'étoile, l'histoire and l'idée; masculine are l'appartement, l'argent, l'arbre, l'avion, l'hôtel, l'oiseau, l'ordinateur and l'endroit. L'enfant and l'ami can be either: un ami, une amie.
Making these nouns plural
Most nouns add an -s that you don't hear: le livre, les livres. In speech, the article does the work, since le and les sound different. A handful of endings do something else.
- -eau and -eu add -x: le cadeau, les cadeaux; l'oiseau, les oiseaux; le jeu, les jeux.
- Nouns already ending in -s or -x stay the same: le mois, les mois; le pays, les pays; le bus, les bus.
- l'œil becomes les yeux, the most irregular plural in the language.
- les vacances is always plural, even for a single holiday: les vacances sont finies.
Ses yeux sont froids.Watch the sound changes when a vowel follows. Les enfants and les amis link with a z sound (lé-z-enfants), and un œil becomes des yeux pronounced as dé-z-yeux.
Common nouns with two meanings, and one false friend
Some of the commonest nouns cover two English words. The context nearly always tells you which.
| French | Meaning 1 | Meaning 2 |
|---|---|---|
| la femme | woman | wife (ma femme) |
| la fille | girl | daughter (ma fille) |
| la langue | language | tongue |
| l'histoire | story | history |
| l'argent | money | silver |
| la carte | map | card, and the menu in a restaurant |
| la pièce | room | coin, and a play at the theatre |
La pièce is any room; a bedroom is la chambre. A big river that runs to the sea is un fleuve (la Seine, la Loire); la rivière is a smaller one.
Madame Lefèvre sort de sa petite chambre.La bibliothèque or la librairie?
La bibliothèque is a library, where you borrow books. La librairie looks like library but is a bookshop, where you buy them. One Contos A2 series is set in exactly that kind of shop:
Ce samedi matin, la librairie Les Feuilles d'Or sent le café et le vieux papier.Next, put the nouns to work with the 100 most common French verbs, or go deeper into one topic: food or travel.
Read a French story at A1 and tap any noun to see its meaning and gender.
Read free in your browserFrequently asked questions
How can I tell if a French noun is masculine or feminine?
Learn every noun with its article, and use the endings as a guide: -age, -eau and -ment are usually masculine; -tion, -ée and -ure are usually feminine. Each rule has a few exceptions, such as la plage and le musée.
Is librairie the French for library?
No, that's a false friend. Une librairie is a bookshop. A library, where you borrow books, is une bibliothèque, which also means a bookcase.
What is the plural of œil?
Yeux: un œil, des yeux. It is the best-known irregular plural in French. Les yeux is pronounced with a z sound linking the two words: lé-z-yeux.
Is vacances singular or plural?
Plural, even when you mean one holiday: les vacances, mes vacances, bonnes vacances ! Une vacance in the singular means a vacancy, such as an empty post.