Is « idéal » masculine or feminine?
« idéal » is masculine. You say l'idéal.
Article forms
| With the definite article | l'idéal |
| With the indefinite article | un idéal |
| With the partitive article | de l'idéal |
Plural
The plural is idéaux (les idéaux). A noun keeps its gender in the plural; only the article stops showing it.
Why the gender
idéal ends in
-al. Nouns ending in
-al are usually masculine,
so idéal follows the pattern.
The full rules by ending cover every common
suffix.
In a sentence
-
Le centre est un idéal.
The center is an ideal. -
Ils leur manquent un idéal, une raison de se lever le matin.
They lack an ideal, a reason to get up in the morning. -
Avec chaque serment rompu, tu rapproches un peu plus notre idéal de la destruction.
With every broken vow, you bring our ideal closer to destruction.
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 « idéal » masculine or feminine?
« idéal » is masculine. You say l'idéal.
« l'idéal » hides the gender. Is « idéal » masculine or feminine?
It is masculine. The article shortens to « l'idéal » for both genders, but you say un idéal, not une idéal, and adjectives take the masculine form.
Check another word, or read the complete guide to French noun gender.