Two genders replace an English neuter

Level 1

French assigns gender to nouns, not biological sex to objects. A book is un livre and a car is une voiture. When these nouns are subjects, they can be replaced by il and elle respectively.

How It Works

French has no separate neuter noun class: nouns are masculine or feminine. This describes words, not the physical traits of objects. Neutral pronouns such as ce, cela and ça also exist, so English it does not have just one French equivalent.

Grammatical, not Biological: Gender is a property of the word itself, not necessarily the object's physical traits. For example, une personne (a person) is always feminine, even if the person is a man.
The Domino Effect: The gender of a noun dictates the form of other words in the sentence. For singular articles, use le or un for masculine nouns, and la or une for feminine nouns. Le and la both become l’ before a vowel sound or mute h, so the article does not always show gender visibly.
Pronoun Replacement: For an ordinary singular subject pronoun referring back to a noun, use il (he/it) for masculine nouns and elle (she/it) for feminine nouns.
Useful Clues: Endings can help, but learn a noun together with an article. Nouns ending in -tion are generally feminine and those in -ment are often masculine; these are clues, not a guarantee.

Examples (4)

Où est le livre ? Il est sur la table.
Where is the book? It is on the table.
Word by Word: Where is the book? He is on the table.
Since 'livre' is masculine, we use the masculine pronoun 'il' to mean 'it'.
Regarde cette voiture. Elle est rouge.
Look at this car. It is red.
Word by Word: Look at this car. She is red.
Since 'voiture' is feminine, we use the feminine pronoun 'elle' to mean 'it'.
La liberté est importante ; elle est précieuse.
Freedom is important; it is precious.
Word by Word: The freedom is important; she is precious.
Abstract concepts like 'liberté' also have gender (feminine) and require matching pronouns.
C'est un stylo. Il est bleu.
It's a pen. It is blue.
Word by Word: It is a pen. He is blue.
Note how the article 'un' and the pronoun 'il' both reflect the masculine gender of 'stylo'.

Common Mistakes

Using 'il' as a universal 'it' for all objects.
La porte est ouverte. Il est grande.
La porte est ouverte. Elle est grande.
In this sentence, the subject pronoun refers back to the feminine noun porte, so use elle with grande. This rule does not prohibit neutral pronouns in other constructions, such as c’est.
Confusing biological sex with grammatical gender.
Cet homme est une bon personne.
Cet homme est une bonne personne.
The noun 'personne' is always feminine, so the adjective 'bonne' must be feminine even if the person being described is a man.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Two genders replace an English neuterLevel 1

Learn This First

To understand why French doesn't use a neuter 'it' for objects, you first need to be familiar with the two-gender system (masculine and feminine) that applies to all nouns.