PARIS (AFP) — Bread is masculine, beer feminine. In French, every noun has a gender, and that includes the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Covid-19 is feminine — to be used with the article ...
Now, the group charged with preserving the French language has spoken. Covid-19, the Académie Française decided, is assuredly feminine, despite its increasingly common usage with the masculine article ...
The Local: Who decides if new French words are masculine or feminine?
Masculine or feminine - who decides when it comes to new French words? Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash It's something that most French learners will have asked themselves - perhaps before throwing ...
Another meaning of bureau is "an office or government agency." These two definitions seem unrelated, but the original meaning of the French word bureau, "cloth covering for a desk" helps explain.
Unadapted borrowing from French bureau, earlier "coarse cloth (as desk cover), baize", from Old French burel (“woolen cloth”), diminutive of *bure (compare Middle French bure (“coarse woolen cloth”), French bourre (“hair, fluff”)), from Late Latin burra (“wool, fluff, shaggy cloth, coarse fabric”); akin to Ancient Greek βερβέριον (berbérion, “sh...
Courthouse News Service: La, not le: French Academy Says Covid Is Feminine