Noun Gender
le or la — made instinctive.

What the learner trains

• Gender assignment for 900 of the most common French nouns.
• Suffix patterns that reliably predict gender (-tion → feminine, -eur → mostly masculine, etc.).
• High-frequency exceptions that break the pattern rules.
• Gender agreement awareness in adjective and past participle contexts.

How patterns replace rote memorisation

About 75% of French nouns follow predictable suffix patterns. Petit Béret groups nouns by these patterns, drilling the group first, then mixing in exceptions. Instead of memorising 900 entries, you internalise ~20 rules and their notable exceptions — a much smaller cognitive load.

What can be configured

• Focus on a single suffix pattern or mix all groups.
• See only the noun (harder) or see it in a sentence context (more natural).
• Spaced repetition: known nouns appear less often, weak ones resurface.

Session flow

1. A noun appears — choose le or la (or type the article).
2. Correct answers advance the noun in the spaced repetition queue.
3. Wrong answers show the suffix rule and reschedule the noun sooner.
4. Session summary shows accuracy per pattern group.

Ready to practice?

Download Petit Béret and build the le/la instinct for good.