For $1 million, which article correctly precedes the French noun maison (house)?

A: le
B: la
C: les
D: None of the above

The correct answer is… B: la!

Okay, okay, we don’t really have a million bucks to give you if you got it right. Sorry!

However, while doing well on a French gender quiz sadly won’t make you the next winner of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” it might just get you to the next level of French fluency.

When you’re able to effortlessly use French nouns in the correct gender, you’ll sound so much more fluent and natural.

Quizzes are an excellent way to practice your language skills and put your memory to the test, and I’ve got some great French gender quizzes that are helpful for all learning levels!

Whether you aced that mini-quiz above or not, you’ll find some helpful resources and memorization tricks in this article, as well as a full French gender quiz you can try right away.

We’ll also show you some of our favorite quizzes you can follow up with for even more practice.
 

How to Prepare for a French Gender Quiz

Before you test your language skills, you should make sure you understand all the ins and outs of French gender.

Contrary to what you might think, there’s a method to all the French gender madness. There are even patterns that’ll help you crack the code rather than relying on rote memorization.

First off, take a look at this thorough primer on French gender, which breaks down the concept in a way that’s easy to understand.

Next, download this free French noun gender list from LoveToKnow, a site that answers questions about everything under the sun. The list contains common masculine and feminine noun endings as well as vocabulary lists broken down by subject.

For some quick preliminary practice, try your hand at these fill-in-the-blank exercises from Tex’s French Grammar, the University of Texas’ French learning website. The exercises are preceded by a lesson on gender that includes plenty of example sentences, their English definitions and audio files.

Want to learn French gender without actually feeling like you’re studying? FluentU is the perfect tool to naturally absorb these and other French language rules. FluentU provides real-world French videos—like movie trailers, music videos, inspiring talks and more—that’ve been transformed into language learning experiences.

Every video comes with interactive subtitles. Click any word and FluentU will automatically pause the video to show you an in-context definition, memorable picture and grammar info including nouns’ genders. To boost your memory, there are also vocabulary lists (also with noun genders listed), full transcripts, flashcards and fun quizzes tailor-made for every video.

You’ll be binging on French content that native speakers actually watch, and picking up French gender rules the easy way while you do it. Best of all, you can practice anytime, anywhere with the FluentU iOS and Android apps.

French Gender Cheat Sheet: Articles and Endings

Since you have some in-depth resources at your disposal now, I won’t go into great detail about how to tell a noun’s gender.

I will, however, provide you with a short reference guide to the essential points so you can have a cheat sheet with you during the quiz if you need!

Gendered Articles

Articles accompany nouns and change depending on the gender of your noun.

le (the, masculine)

la (the, feminine)

les (the, plural)

un (a/an, masculine)

une (a/an, feminine)

des (a/an, plural)

l’ (the, before a word that starts with a vowel)

d’ (a/an, before a word that starts with a vowel)

Gendered Noun Endings

You can usually rely on these endings to indicate whether a noun is feminine or masculine. Just be aware there are some exceptions.

Masculine endings:

-age

-am, -um, -em

-oir

-ard

-ment

-il, -ail, -eil, -euil

-eau, -eu

-isme

-ing

-ème, -ège

-é

-an, -and, -ant

-ent, -in, -int

-om, -ond, -ont

-er

-it, -est

Additionally, most nouns that end in a consonant are masculine.

Feminine endings:

-tion, -sion, -son

-té

-ée

-ière

-euse

-ure

-ude, -ade

-ance, -ence

-ine

-elle, -esse, -ette

-consonant + -ie

Gendered Noun Categories

As for categories of nouns that typically are all one gender, they’re as follows. Again, take these as a general rule of thumb.

Masculine noun categories:

Nouns with English origin such as le football (football or soccer) or le parking (parking lot)

Languages

Colors

Metric units

Feminine noun categories:

School subjects

Types of sciences such as la biologie (biology)

Names of cars such as une Porsche (a Porsche)

Businesses like la boulangerie (the bakery)

Le, La, Ah! The Ultimate French Gender Quiz for Beginners to Advanced Learners

Now it’s time to test what you’ve learned!

Simply write down whether you think the noun is masculine (le/un) or feminine (la/une). Answers to each level’s 15-question quiz are provided at the end of each section.

Bonne chance! (Good luck!)

Beginner’s Quiz

For those just learning the basics and gaining exposure to common vocabulary words, this is the quiz for you! It covers everything from food and house words to colors and school subjects.

Nouns:

1. Pomme (apple)

2. Tennis (tennis)

3. Frigo (fridge)

4. Chimie (chemistry)

5. Rouge (red)

6. Bâtiment (building)

7. Soir (evening)

8. Bateau (boat)

9. Voiture (car)

10. Mère (mother)

11. Lit (bed)

12. Lait (milk)

13. Bus (bus)

14. Feuille (leaf)

15. Télévision (television)

Answers:

1. Feminine — la pomme

2. Masculine — le tennis

3. Masculine — le frigo

4. Feminine — la chimie

5. Masculine — le rouge

6. Masculine — le bâtiment

7. Masculine — le soir

8. Masculine — le bateau

9. Feminine — la voiture

10. Feminine — la mère

11. Masculine — le lit

12. Masculine — le lait

13. Masculine — le bus

14. Feminine — la feuille

15. Feminine — la télévision

Intermediate Quiz

Have you been learning French for a while now? Do you have a decent-sized vocabulary?

If so, then this is the perfect quiz for you. It includes geography nouns, emotion words, a few words beginning in vowels and more.

Nouns:

1. Mexique (Mexico)

2. Mort (death)

3. Problème (problem)

4. État (state)

5. Paix (peace)

6. Amour (love)

7. Prix (price)

8. Chemin (path)

9. Bruit (noise)

10. Rendez-vous (appointment)

11. Mur (wall)

12. Peau (skin)

13. Conseil (advice)

14. Billet (ticket)

15. Honte (shame)

Answers:

1. Masculine — le Mexique

2. Feminine — la mort

3. Masculine — le problème

4. Masculine — l’état

5. Feminine — la paix

6. Masculine — l’amour

7. Masculine — le prix

8. Masculine — le chemin

9. Masculine — le bruit

10. Masculine — le rendez-vous

11. Masculine — le mur

12. Feminine — la peau

13. Masculine — le conseil

14. Masculine — le billet

15. Feminine — la honte

Advanced Quiz

While the vocabulary itself might not be super difficult, knowing whether the following words are masculine or feminine is a true challenge.

With most of the words beginning in vowels, it’s likely that you’ve rarely ever used them with anything but l’, making it harder to remember their gender.

Plus, I’ve thrown in a pair of words whose meanings change depending on gender, so be sure to pay special attention to the definitions!

Nouns:

1. Huile (oil)

2. Eau (water)

3. École (school)

4. Usine (factory)

5. Air (air)

6. Huître (oyster)

7. Adresse (address)

8. Tour (tower)

9. Tour (tour)

10. Âne (donkey)

11. Unité (unity)

12. Égalité (equality)

13. Attente (wait)

14. Endroit (place)

15. Anneau (ring)

Answers:

1. Feminine — l’huile

2. Feminine — l’eau

3. Feminine — l’école

4. Feminine — l’usine

5. Masculine — l’air

6. Feminine — l’huître

7. Feminine — l’adresse

8. Feminine — la tour

9. Masculine — le tour

10. Masculine — l’âne

11. Feminine — l’unité

12. Feminine — l’égalité

13. Feminine — l’attente

14. Masculine — l’endroit

15. Masculine — l’anneau

As briefly mentioned earlier, some words like la tour (tower) and le tour (tour) change their meaning depending on which gender you use. This is just one of the many reasons why learning the correct gender is so important!

Want Additional French Gender Quizzes?

If you can’t get enough French gender quizzes, there are plenty of places online that have some great ones.

• Sporcle, a quiz site, has two great tests you can take. One is Can You Name the Gender? with 64 questions. The other is Can You Name the Gender of These Nouns? with 39 questions.

• Quizlet has a flashcard-style quiz focused on common masculine and feminine noun endings. As a bonus, all endings are accompanied by audio to help you learn the correct pronunciations.

• LanguageGuide.Org, a language learning website, has 13 different gender tests in their grammar “Trial By Fire” section.

• ProProfs, an online quiz maker, has a short, 10-question quiz on French gender.

So, how did you do?

Hopefully, you scored close to where you’d like to and if not, just remember the old adage that practice makes perfect!

Camille Turner is the Director of Scripturient Writing & Editing Services.