les noms
Nouns are variable words that change the way in which they are written based on gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural).
What is a noun?
A noun refers to a person, place, thing or idea.
Two types of nouns
In French (and in English), nouns are divided into two main categories: common nouns (les noms communs) and proper nouns (les noms propres).
Les noms communs
A common noun is a general name for a person, place, thing, or idea.
It does not need a capital letter unless it starts a sentence.
It is often used with a determiner/article (un, une, le, la, les).
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Examples:
Un chat (a cat) - Any cat, not a specific one.
Une ville (a city) - Could be any ciry.
Des crayons (pencils) - Refers to pencils in general
Les Noms propres
A proper nouns is the specific name of a person, place, or thing.
It always begins with a capital letter.
It does not need a determiner, but one can be used.
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Examples:
Marie (Marie) - A specific person's name.
Paris (Paris) - A specific city.
Amazon (Amazon) - The name of a company.
Today's slides
Examples of todays work
We complete worksheets together in class. Sometimes, we do a few examples as a group, then students work independently before reviewing. After ample practice and review, I may assign homework to assess understanding.
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**Please note that these are the instruction of the work completed and homework assigned. Students have the work packets with them with the full details.
Activity 1: Check the correct column according to the type of noun.
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Activity 2: Shade the common nouns.
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Activity 3: Complete the following sentences by adding the missing nouns. A word bank was provided. We went through each French word, identified its English translation, and as we read through the sentences in French, then translated them into English, we filled in the correct/appropriate word.
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Activity 4: Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with either a common noun (NC) or a proper noun (NP) as indicated. Don’t forget to consider the meaning of the sentence. English translations of the sentences were provided.
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Activity 5: We skipped this as the language was too advanced.
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Before Activity 6, we discussed when words always start with a capital letter:
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Proper names of people or animals - first names, last names
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Tintin et Milou, Napoléon, Karine, Alexandre...​
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Names of geographical places - cities, countries, continents, etc.
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Fredericton, Canada, l'Amérique du Nord, Haïti...​
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Names of public places - streets, monuments, buildings, etc.
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le rue School, le parc O'Dell, le musée du Louvre...​
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Cardinal points - North, South, East, West, specific regions
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le Grand Nord, l'Ouest...​
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Periods or events - Historic, sporting, artistic, etc.
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la Renaissance, le Première Guerre mondiale, les Jeux olympiques...​
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Holidays - national, religious, civic, etc.
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la Saint-Valentin, le Mardi gras, l'Action de grâce...​
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Names of peoples and nationalities
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les Canadiens, un Nord-Américain...​
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Activity 6: Rewrite the following nouns with capital letters placed in the correct spots. All words were originally in capital letters.
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ASSIGNED AS HOMEWORK - DUE FRIDAY:
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Activity 7: Find and write a nouns that matches the description. Choose nouns that have not already been used in this document or mentioned in class.
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Activity 8: Using a dictionary or the internet, write the plural form of the following common nouns.
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Activity 9: Using a dictionary or the internet, find the feminine form of the following common nouns.