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Furthermore, some see evidence of the intentional preference of the masculine over the feminine. It has been argued that 17th-century grammaticians who wanted to assert male dominance worked to suppress the feminine forms of certain professions, leading to the modern-day rule that prefers the masculine over the feminine in the French language. [4]
Some (very rare) nouns change gender according to the way they are used: the words amour 'love' and délice 'pleasure' are masculine in singular and feminine in plural; the word orgue 'organ' is masculine, but when used emphatically in plural to refer to a church organ it becomes feminine (les grandes orgues); the plural noun gens 'people ...
Thus the French word for "I" is je, regardless of who is speaking; but this word becomes feminine or masculine depending on the sex of the speaker, as may be reflected through adjective agreement: je suis forte ("I am strong", spoken by a female); je suis fort (the same spoken by a male).
The French definite article derives from a Latin distal demonstrative, ille. [1] It evolved from the Old French article system, which shared resemblance to modern English and acquired the marking of generic nouns. [2] This practise was common by the 17th century, although it has been argued that this became widely used as early as in the 13th ...
French has a T-V distinction in the second person singular. That is, it uses two different sets of pronouns: tu and vous and their various forms. The usage of tu and vous depends on the kind of relationship (formal or informal) that exists between the speaker and the person with whom they are speaking and the age differences between these subjects. [1]
The feminine rhyme is rare in a monosyllabic language such as English, but the gerund and participle suffix-ing, which adds an additional stressless syllable, can make it readily available. For instance, the -ing ending makes available three of the feminine rhymes in Shakespeare's sonnet above, rolling , trolling , and doting .
France has taken this step in 2012. [1] In Belgium, its use is not recommended, but not forbidden either. In France, calling a young woman "Mademoiselle" is usually considered more polite, and calling a middle-aged woman "Mademoiselle" can be a way to tell her that she looks like she is in her twenties and may therefore be considered flattering.
The word couple is used in standard French as a masculine noun (a couple, married or unmarried), but in Quebec it is also used as a feminine noun in phrases like une couple de semaines (a couple of weeks). This is often thought to be an anglicism, but is in fact a preservation of an archaic French usage.