“J’ai rendez-vous avec mon amie”

Question

This question was asked in a previous quiz, and the answer was you cannot tell the gender of the ‘“amie”. I understand that the ending e makes it a female friend, but if the question is verbalized, that is not available information. In the quiz I just took, the answer is ‘a woman’. I am confused as to how to answer this question in future quizzes, as two different answers have been given.

Accepted Answer

Hi E. M.
Just to add to what Maarten has said, I have checked the quiz question in this particular lesson and it was -

J'ai rendez-vous avec mon amie
Is my friend a man or a woman?

The choices were 
a woman/ a man/ you cannot say 
The correct answer is a woman as there is an -e at the end of the noun ami which makes it female ( although if this had been verbal you could not have been sure, as mon ami and mon amie sound exactly the same.)
However, as Maarten says without the details of the previous quiz question, we cannot address your confusion and it would be very useful if you could find it so we can try and help you further.

Answer

EM,

In speech the context will usually be known or clarified by the speaker. In a conversation, you can ask for clarification if needed.

However, if neither context or clarification is available, it is correct that you can’t determine the friend’s gender from the spoken phrase as the pronunciation of ‘ son ami ‘ is identical to that of ‘ son amie ‘. Unless there was other context already provided, it would make little sense to pose the same question orally, except to draw the answer ‘ don’t know ‘ .

The important point though is that in writing, you can determine the friend’s gender when in the singular. A specific reference to ‘ amie ‘ is to a female, whereas a specific reference to ‘ ami ‘ is to a male. Barring occasional typos, neither is uncertain.

In writing, the only uncertainty is with the plural form eg ‘ ses amis ‘, which could be an all male or a mixed gender group. ‘ Ses amies ‘ is an all female group.

If you can link the previous response you saw, it could be checked and discussed further if necessary. If it stated that you can’t tell the gender of ‘ amie ‘, it was wrong.