Countries, Nationalities & Languages
Countries, Nationalities & Languages
Country names in French carry gender just like any other noun, which decides which preposition you use for 'in/to' that country — a preview of a fuller lesson to come. Nationality words also behave quite differently from their English counterparts.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
en / au / aux — a preview of country prepositions
en France (fem. countries), au Japon (masc. countries), aux États-Unis (plural countries)
in/to France, in/to Japan, in/to the United States
Most country names ending in -e are feminine and take en ('in/to'), most others are masculine and take au ('in/to', a fusion of à + le), and plural-named countries take aux (à + les). English just uses 'in/to' for every country with no variation at all, so this three-way split based on grammatical gender is a genuinely new habit. This is just a first taste — the full rules and exceptions get a dedicated lesson later — but it's worth noticing now that the gender of the country name, not any logic about geography, drives the choice.
Nationality adjectives agree in gender, and aren't capitalized
il est français / elle est française — il est indien / elle est indienne
he is French / she is French — he is Indian / she is Indian
Nationality words are ordinary adjectives in French — lowercase, unlike English's capitalized 'French' and 'Indian' — and they change form for the person's gender, usually by adding -e for feminine (français → française) or doubling the final consonant plus -e (indien → indienne). English nationality adjectives never change form at all regardless of who they describe ('he is French', 'she is French'), so remembering both the lowercase spelling and the gender agreement takes conscious effort at first. When used as the name of the language itself, though, the masculine singular form is fixed and never changes: le français, not la française, for 'the French language'.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
| French | Pronunciation | English |
|---|---|---|
| la France | lah frahns | France |
| français / française | frahn-SAY / frahn-SEZ | French (masc./fem.) |
| le Japon | luh zhah-POHN | Japan |
| japonais / japonaise | zhah-poh-NAY / zhah-poh-NEZ | Japanese (masc./fem.) |
| les États-Unis | lay zay-tah-zu-NEE | the United States |
| américain / américaine | ah-may-ree-KAN / ah-may-ree-KEN | American (masc./fem.) |
| l'Inde | land | India |
| indien / indienne | an-dee-AN / an-dee-EN | Indian (masc./fem.) |
| l'Allemagne | lahl-MAH-nyuh | Germany |
| je parle français | zhuh parl frahn-SAY | I speak French |