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Unit 3 Gender and Indefinite Articles

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Nouns Look back at the vocabulary lists that you have. You will notice that in front of each NOUN (person/place/thing) there is a small wordeither un or une or des Those three words are called INDEFINITE ARTICLES. These words give us information about the noun. The un & the une mean: A or AN. For example: a hot dog= un hot-dog DES means some and it is always plural--- some sandwiches= des sandwich s

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Nouns In French, all NOUNS (person/place/thing) have something that we call GENDERthey are either MASCULINE or FEMININE. This does not exist in English. How can you tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine? The easiest way to look at a noun & know if it is masculine or feminine is to look at the INDEFINITE ARTICLE! It is giving you a HINT. If the noun has the word UNE in front of itIT IS FEMININE! If the noun has the word UN in front of itIT IS MASCULINE!

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What if? What if the UN or UNE is not there? THEN how can we tell if the noun is masculine or feminine? Is there a rule? Sort ofFirst of allLOOK at the noun. Sample nouns: quiche sandwich Hmmmis quiche masculine or feminine? What about sandwich??? Heres the ruleit will work about 75% of the time. I call this the 75% RULE: If a NOUN ends in an un-accented Eit is PROBABLY feminine. So, if we follow that ruleQUICHE should have an UNE in front of it and SANDWICH should have an UN in front of it. This rule will work 75% of the time! There ARE exceptions25% of the time!

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Plural nouns When those nouns become plural, they BOTH will use DES as their article. EXAMPLES: Un sandwich-----------des sandwichs Une quiche-------------des quiches Un steak----------------des steaks Une omelette----------des omelettes

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What about..? Caf? Look at cafwhat kind of E does it have??? OH! One with an accent. Soshould caf be masculineor feminine? Caf is masculine since the E is accentedun caf COMMON 25%-ers that we already have (there will be more): Fromage (cheese)---this word is masculine= un fromage Pizza-----this word is feminine even though it does not end in an E=une pizza Eau (water)----this word is also feminine Livre (book)----this word is masculine (25%-er)

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PracticePut in the UN, UNE or DES ________frites__________jambon ________bonbons__________examen ________cadeau__________papier ________jus__________pommes ________examens__________garons ________fille__________professeur ________crayons__________th ________crpe__________glaces

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Correct Answers---check yourselves! __des______frites_____un_____jambon ____des____bonbons_____un_____examen ___un_____cadeau____un______papier ___un_____jus____des______pommes ____des____examens____des______garons ____une____fille____un______professeur _____des___crayons____un______th ____une____crpe____des______glaces