Is « essence » masculine or feminine?
« essence » is feminine. You say l'essence.
Article forms
| With the definite article | l'essence |
| With the indefinite article | une essence |
| With the partitive article | de l'essence |
Plural
The plural is essences (les essences). A noun keeps its gender in the plural; only the article stops showing it.
Why the gender
essence ends in
-ence. Nouns ending in
-ence are usually feminine,
so essence follows the pattern.
The full rules by ending cover every common
suffix.
In a sentence
-
J'ai de l'essence.
I have gas. -
Qui va payer l'essence ?
Who's paying for the gas? -
L'essence va nous manquer.
We're running out of petrol.
Example sentences from Tatoeba, used under CC BY 2.0 FR. Each links to its source sentence.
Related words
Other common nouns that end the same way:
Common questions
Is « essence » masculine or feminine?
« essence » is feminine. You say l'essence.
« l'essence » hides the gender. Is « essence » masculine or feminine?
It is feminine. The article shortens to « l'essence » for both genders, but you say une essence, not un essence, and adjectives take the feminine form.
Check another word, or read the complete guide to French noun gender.