Free French Gender Quiz: Le or La
This French gender quiz drills le and la with 2,467 everyday nouns. Tap le or la, or press 1 or 2, and the answer appears at once. Where l' hides the gender, the answer names it: l'arbre (masculine), un arbre. Where the ending gives the gender away, you see the rule and how often it holds, and when a noun breaks its rule, the quiz says so. A running score stays on screen, and at the end you can practice only the nouns you missed. It's free and needs no signup.
How the French gender quiz works
Pick a set of nouns, and the quiz shows them one at a time with their English meaning. For each noun, you decide whether it's masculine or feminine by picking its article. Tap le or la, or press 1 or 2 on a keyboard. The right answer appears at once, and Enter takes you to the next noun, so you can work through a set from the keyboard.
A running score stays on screen. If you'd rather see the French noun on its own, hide the English meaning. When you reach the end, you can practice only the nouns you missed.
2,467 everyday French nouns
We built the list from the nouns that come up most often in French film and TV subtitles. Rare words, verb and adjective forms, slang and names came out. The rest was reviewed for everyday French, and every noun that stayed got an English meaning. That left 2,467 nouns: 1,345 take le and 1,122 take la. So answering le every time would score about 55 percent, a little better than a coin toss.
You don't have to take all 2,467 at once. Choose a set of 100 nouns, 300 or 1,000, or all of them. Or choose the set of nouns whose ending gives the gender away, which comes with the exceptions to each rule.
What you see after each answer
Every answer comes back with the noun and its article. Where l' hides the gender, the answer reads "l'arbre (masculine), un arbre" and names the gender for you. That's more useful than it looks. Le and la both become l' before a vowel or a mute h, and every plural takes les, so neither l'arbre nor les arbres can tell you the gender later. An irregular plural shows up too, such as les chevaux.
Where the noun's ending is a rule, the quiz adds the rule and how often it holds: "Nouns ending in -tion are feminine: 2,290 of the 2,307 in our dictionary." Where the noun breaks the rule, it tells you that instead. For la plage, it says: "An exception: nouns ending in -age are masculine (1,099 of the 1,127 in our dictionary), but not this one." La page, l'image and la cage break the same rule.
French gender practice by ending
The endings set holds only the nouns whose ending gives the gender away, plus the nouns that break each rule. Some of those rules are close to certain. In our dictionary, 2,290 of the 2,307 nouns ending in -tion are feminine, and every noun ending in -trice is too. Others are a strong lean and no more: about 88 percent of nouns in -on are masculine, and about 72 percent of nouns in -ure are feminine. For those, the quiz says "most nouns" instead of stating a rule.
Because the exceptions come mixed in, you learn each rule together with the nouns it doesn't cover. La maison and la leçon break the -on rule, for a start. The French noun gender rules guide lists the rules with their counts and the everyday exceptions to learn first.
Nouns with two genders
One noun in the quiz takes either gender with the same meaning: après-midi, which can be un or une après-midi. For that one, either answer counts, so you won't lose a point for the one you happened to learn.
Other nouns have two genders and a meaning for each. Le livre is a book and la livre is a pound. Nouns like that always show their meaning, even when you've hidden the English, because the meaning decides the answer. When you meet one in a text, the French gender checker shows both genders with their meanings, such as le tour and la tour, or le poste and la poste.
A quiz for practice, a checker for lookups
The quiz is for practice, one noun at a time. To look up the nouns from your own textbook, paste up to 100 at once into the French gender checker and copy them back with their articles. To see why an ending decides the gender, and which nouns break each rule, read the French noun gender rules. And for the verbs in the same lesson, the French verb conjugation worksheets print fill-in boxes and a quick quiz, with an answer key on separate pages.
Frequently asked questions
Is this French gender quiz free?
Yes. There's no account and no email address, and it runs in the browser.
Which nouns are in the French gender quiz?
The quiz has 2,467 everyday nouns, chosen from the nouns most frequent in French film and TV subtitles, with rare words, verb and adjective forms, slang and names taken out. Of those, 1,345 take le and 1,122 take la, and each has an English meaning. You can take a set of 100, 300 or 1,000, or all 2,467.
Can I answer with the keyboard?
Yes. Press 1 for le and 2 for la, then Enter for the next noun.
What does the quiz show after each answer?
It shows the noun with its article, and an irregular plural such as les chevaux. If the ending is a rule, it adds the rule and how often it holds. If the noun is an exception, it says so: "An exception: nouns ending in -age are masculine (1,099 of the 1,127 in our dictionary), but not this one."
How do I answer for a noun that takes l'?
Pick its gender. Arbre is masculine, so the answer is le, and the quiz shows "l'arbre (masculine), un arbre" to help you remember it with un.
What about nouns with two genders?
One noun in the quiz, après-midi, takes either gender with the same meaning, and either answer counts. A noun such as livre, which is le livre "book" and la livre "pound", always shows its meaning, even if you hide the English, because the meaning decides the answer.
Can I practice only the nouns I got wrong?
Yes. At the end of a set, you can go through only the nouns you missed.
Can I practice French articles by ending?
Yes. Choose the set of nouns whose ending gives the gender away. It includes the exceptions, so you learn each rule with the nouns that break it.
Licenses and credits
French nouns, genders and plurals come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). The quiz's nouns are chosen by their frequency in FrequencyWords (Hermit Dave, from OpenSubtitles 2018, CC BY-SA 4.0), and their English meanings are written for NexaProva.