Do city names have gender?
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Ron
Kwiziq community member
4/12/17

Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
15/03/18
Hi Vernon,
Although you don't need to worry about the gender of most towns or cities in the expression , 'Venir de', as in the case of single word places it will always be
Je viens de Paris, je viens de Londres, je viens d'Amsterdam, je viens de Nice ...
In the case of towns which use an article in their name it will be,
je viens du Havre (because the town is Le Havre )
Je viens de La Rochelle ( because the town is La Rochelle)
je viens des Sables d'Olonne ( the town is Les Sables d'Olonne) etc...
When you start talking about towns and cities or describing them you will need to use a gender and some will be feminine or masculine. Some will have an article in front of them like, La Havane , La Rochelle, Le Creusot which will determine whether they are feminine or masculine. Some will have an adjective in their name like, Mantes-la-Jolie which will indicate their gender. But in the majority of single word cases, there are no rules to indicate whether a city or town is masculine or feminine except when you use the adjectives 'vieux', 'grand', 'nouveau' or 'tout' in front of them which will always be masculine in this case, e.g. Le Vieux Nice, le grand Bruxelles, le nouveau Belleville, Le tout-Paris...
Hope this helps!
Desi
Kwiziq community member
18/03/18
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Vernon
Kwiziq community member
3 December 2017
3 replies
Do city names have gender?
According to the lesson below, you have to use de/du depending on a country's gender. Is it the same for cities? https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/my-languages/french/tests/results/1861632/system?quick-lesson-popup=1
This question relates to:
French lesson "Je viens de + [city] = I'm from + [city]"