Basics

Hello!

I'm kind of a new here and I've just begun my French learning. I still work on basics. Could you explain, what's the difference and when do you use:

bel

belle

beau

???

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on February 1, 2010 at 4:31pm

OK, you may have heard that French words referring to people and things are divided into two categories called "masculine" and "feminine". For example, here are some masculine and feminine words:

Masculine
garçon = boy
homme = man
chien = (male) dog
pays = country
bâtiment = building
immeuble = building, residential/office block
îlot = islet, small island

Feminine
fille = girl
femme = woman
chienne = female dog, bitch
ville = town, city
île = island
maison = house

As you can see, "masculine" words include various words referring to masculine people or animals, and "feminine" words include various words referring to feminine people or animals. But there are also lots of words that are just arbitrarily in one or the other category. Why should an "island" be "feminine", but an "islet" be "masculine"? Why should a "building" be "masculine", but a "house" be "feminine"? To some extent, the answer is just "because they are".

So now, referring back to your question:

beau is used with masculine words;
belle is used with feminine words;
bel is used with masculine words that begin with a vowel.

Remembering that un is the masculine word for "a", and une is the feminine, this gives examples such as:

un beau garçon
a good-looking boy
une belle fille
a good-looking girl
un beau pays
a nice country
une belle ville
a nice town
une belle maison
a nice house
une belle île
a nice island

and, with the special form bel for masculine words beginning with a vowel:

un bel îlot
a nice (small) island
un bel immeuble
a fine apartment/office block
un bel homme
a good-looking man
(remember h isn't pronounced in French, so homme actually begins with a vowel)

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EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on February 1, 2010 at 5:10pm

French noun-genders are officially insane, actually.

Consider this: The words for breast and vagina are masculine nouns; the most common word for penis is feminine.

I rest my case :-)

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Permalink Reply by Krzysztof Kossakowski on February 5, 2010 at 12:30pm

Thank you very much!

This language very complicated, but very beautiful too. How would you say that? C'est une belle langue, I guess.