Practice Makes Perfect

Departments, regions, and states

Now we are going to travel around the provinces and departments of France and states of Amer-

ica and try to figure out their genders.

Departments

Many departments take the gender of a river, a mountain, or a geographic site, like the coast.

l’Auvergne 

la Dordogne 

la Loire

le Cantal 

le Finistère 

la Manche

Le tunnel sous la Manche est ouvert  

The Chunnel has been open since 1994. 

depuis 1994.

Dans le Finistère, Concarneau, ville  

In the Finistère, Concarneau, a medieval 

médiévale entourée de remparts, attire  

 

walled town, attracts many tourists. 

de nombreux touristes.

Some departments are named after two rivers. If one river is masculine, it goes first and the 

noun is masculine. If both are feminine, the department is feminine.