The idea behind Genders: A simple tutorial package designed to help learners of French to internalise knowledge of noun gender distinctions

Abstract

Noun gender is one of the most, if not the most, exasperating features of French for a learner. Apart from a relatively small number of words whose gender is set semantically (père, mère, fils etc.) there seems to be no reason why a table, freedom or France itself should be feminine, while a wall, a beginning or Japan should be masculine.