Les Noms - French Nouns

A noun is a word that represents a thing, whether that thing is concrete (e.g., a chair, a dog) or abstract (an idea, happiness).

In French, all nouns have a gender - they are either masculine or feminine. It is very important to learn a noun's gender along with the noun itself because 
(A) articles, (B) adjectives  and some verbs have to agree with nouns; that is, they change depending on the gender of the noun they precede or follow. The gender of some nouns makes sense (homme [man] is masculine,  femme [woman] is feminine) but others don't (personne [person] is always feminine, even if the person is a man!) The best way to learn the gender of nouns is to make your vocabulary lists with the definite or indefinite article. That is, so that you learn the gender with the noun. The gender is part of the noun and you will be much better off learning it now, as a beginner, than trying to go back after years of study and memorizing the genders of all the words you've already learned (I speak from experience). Also, some nouns have different meanings depending on whether they are masculine or feminine.

There are some tendencies in the gender of nouns, but there are always exceptions. Countries and names that end in e are usually (but not always) feminine. I will list the patterns that I have noticed, but please don't use these as a way to avoid learning the genders of nouns - just learn each word as gender + noun and then you'll know them forever.

A) Les Articles définis - Definite Articles

The French definite article corresponds to the in English. There are four forms of the French definite article:

Which definite article to use depends on three things: the noun's gender, number, and first letter. If the noun is plural, use les. If it's singular starting with a vowel or mute h, use l'. If it's singular and starts with a consonant, use le if it's masculine and la if it's feminine.

Meaning and Usage of the French definite article

The definite article indicates a specific noun.

Je vais à la banque - I'm going to the bank.
Voici le livre que j'ai lu - Here is the book I read.

The definite article is also used in French to indicate the general sense of a noun. The article is not used in this sense in English.

J'aime la glace - I like ice cream
C'est la vie ! - That's life!

The definite article changes when preceded by the preposition à or de - the preposition and article contract into a single word.

B) Genre et Nombre - Gender and Number

Nearly all French nouns have different forms for singular and plural. In addition, many nouns that refer to people have both a masculine and a feminine form. Many of the rules here also apply to adjectives.

Note that the gender rules apply only to people and some animals. They do not apply to objects, which have a masculine or a feminine form, never both.

I. Most nouns add an e for feminine and an s for plural

II. When a noun ends in e, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine forms

III. When a noun ends in s, x, or z there is no difference between the singular and plural forms