Look at these nouns and adjectives ending in -ien, -ion, and -on :
Ton fils est mignon, et ta fille est mignonne aussi.
Your son is cute, and your daughter is cute too.
Il y a un château ancien et une église ancienne.
There is an ancient castle and an ancient church.
Voilà un bon gâteau et une bonne boisson.
Here is a good cake and a good drink.
Usain Bolt est un champion.
Serena Williams est une championne.
Usain Bolt is a champion.
Serena Williams is a champion.
Au zoo, il y a un lion et une lionne.
At the zoo, there is a lion and a lioness.
Andrew est australien, et Emma est aussi australienne.
Andrew is Australian, and Emma is also Australian.
-> -ienne, -ionne, -onne.
Cases of nationalities:
Ma petite amie est canadienne.
My girlfriend is Canadian.
Je connais un Canadien qui vit de l'autre côté de la rue.
I know a Canadian who lives across the street.
See also Forming the feminine of adjectives ending in -el, -eil, -il, -ul, -et, -s
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Ton fils est mignon, et ta fille est mignonne aussi.
Your son is cute, and your daughter is cute too.
Je connais un Canadien qui vit de l'autre côté de la rue.
I know a Canadian who lives across the street.
Au zoo, il y a un lion et une lionne.
At the zoo, there is a lion and a lioness.
Ma petite amie est canadienne.
My girlfriend is Canadian.
J'ai un chien et une chienne.
I have a dog and a female dog.
Usain Bolt est un champion.
Serena Williams est une championne.
Usain Bolt is a champion.
Serena Williams is a champion.
Voilà un bon gâteau et une bonne boisson.
Here is a good cake and a good drink.
Andrew est australien, et Emma est aussi australienne.
Andrew is Australian, and Emma is also Australian.
Il y a un château ancien et une église ancienne.
There is an ancient castle and an ancient church.
Q&A
Cécile
Kwiziq language super star
29/10/18
Hi Claudia,
If you look a the note in the lesson for the case of nationalities , if it is an adjective there is no capital letter, e.g.
Elle est indienne, il est français...
But if it is a noun, i.e. the inhabitant of that country there is a capital letter .
Elle c'est une Française, lui, c'est un Espagnol...
Hope this helps!
Claudia
Kwiziq community member
29/10/18
Gruff
Kwiziq language super star
23/06/17
Stefanie
Kwiziq community member
19/01/18
Varsha
Kwiziq community member
9 February 2019
1 reply
Would like to clarify the audio’s pronunciation.
Bonjour Madame !
In the sentence of the lesson -J’ai un chien et une chienne. The audio speaks “shienn” for both words although ‘chien’ is spoken as ‘shian’ with a nasal sound I recall .
Also ‘et’ is not clear to me . Maybe because I am not a native speaker. Please clarify.
Merci d’avance !
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
13 February 2019
13/02/19
Bonjour Varsha !
Indeed, the audio was quite confusing here :)
Thanks to you, I've now fixed it!
Merci et bonne journée !