Countries and nationalities

In one line

Countries ending in e are feminine and take en; the rest are masculine and take au.

The table

The common countries

A spelling exception: le Mexique and le Cambodge end in e but are masculine. These have to be memorised.

A masculine country beginning with a vowel

If it is masculine but starts with a vowel, it takes en, not au:

Because au Angola would put two vowels together, which French avoids.

Islands — a rule of their own

Continents — all feminine

Nationality — three forms, three uses

This is the most frequent writing mistake an English speaker makes in French, and it is worth over-learning. English capitalises every one of them — a French student, a Frenchman, I speak French. French capitalises only the person.

	English	French
the person	a Frenchman	un Français — capital, the same
the adjective	a French student	un étudiant français — lowercase
the language	I speak French	Je parle français — lowercase

And the same applies to days and months, which English also capitalises and French does not: lundi, janvier.

The feminine of nationalities

The language — always with an article, except after parler

Only parler drops the article — and if an adverb comes in, it returns: Je parle bien le français.

Examples

Common mistakes

That fourth one is an important rule: after être, a job or a nationality takes no article — Il est médecin, Elle est française. But with c'est it does: C'est un Français.

Why countries have a gender