99 Nationalities & Country Names In French: +Gender & Capitalization Rules

Rules to Remember About Country Names And Nationalities In French

If you speak English, you're in luck because many country names in French and nationalities in French look or sound very similar to English.

For example, here are few country names in French you might recognize.

Denmark is Danemark, France is France, Japan is Japon.

Not all country names sound similar to their name in English, for example England in French is Angleterre (On-Gluh-Tear). 

What trips people up the most when it comes to country names and nationalities in French are the following:

1. When to capitalize and when not to capitalize.
2. Masculine and Feminine genders.
3. The exceptions to the rules.

Let's quickly go through some rules and then move on to the list of country names and nationalities in French below. Or if you know all the rules, you can just skip to the list by scrolling down.

ARTICLES: (m) means masculine and (f)

-THE: LE (m,) LA (f), LES (pl)
-A, AN, or ONE: UN (m), UNE (f), DES (pl)

1) Never Capitalize Languages

When dealing with countries and nationalities, language is bound to come up. Fortunately, they're easy to deal with because languages are never capitalized.

Here are some example phrases using languages.

• Do you speak French?
  • Est ce que vous parlez français?
• You speak English very well. 
  • Vous parlez très bien anglais.
• I love speaking French with the French
  • J'adore parler français avec les Français.

2) Country names in French: Masculin, Feminine, Capitalized?

*How do you know if the gender of a country name in French is masculine or feminine?

*When do you capitalize country names in French? 

It's actually pretty easy!

If you memorize some simple rules and know a few exceptions to the rules, you'll never forget a country's gender in French again. 

Let's go through them now!

RULE: Country names in French are always capitalized because they are proper nouns.

Feminine Country Names In French

RULE: In French, country names that end in -E are always feminine.

They use the article -la (or -l' if the country starts with a vowel.)

• l'Angleterre
• l'Italie
• la France
• la Tunisie
• la Thaïlande

EXCEPTION TO THE -E RULE: There are 6 countries that end with -E, that are not feminine. (see next section about masculine country names)

The only 6 country names in French that end with -E, that are masculine are: 

1. le Belize
2. le Cambodge
3. le Mexique
4. le Mozambique
5. le Suriname
6. le Zimbabwe

Masculine Country Names In French

RULE: Any country name in French that does not end with an -E is masculine. These masculine countries take the article -le.

• Le Guatemala
• Le Japon
• Le Maroc
• Le Portugal

Plural Country Names In French

Some countries, like the United States, are always plural and take the article -les

• Les États-Unis
• Les Bahamas
• Les Bermudes
• Les Comores
• Les Émirats arabes unis
• Les Fidji or Les Îles Fidji
• Les Îles Féroé
• Les Pays-Bas
• Les Philippines
• Les Seychelle

3) Nationalities In French Genders: masculine or Feminine? Capitalized or Not?

"Nationalité"

Without knowing the rules, you might be wondering why some nationalities in French are capitalized, while others are not. Or how nationality in French can be masculine and feminine in the same phrase?

Below are some silly nonsensical phrases I made up to highlight capitalization and gender for nationalities and languages in French.

Notice how the word "FRANÇAIS" is capitalized and not capitalized in the same sentence. 

French words are not capitalized as often as they are in English. Many words that are always capitalized in English cannot be capitalized in French or are only sometimes capitalized, such as nationalities. 

• Les Français parlent le français avec la Française en France.
  • The French speak French with the French person in France
• François est français et Isabelle est française
  • Francois is French, and Isabelle is French

Let's go over the rules now!

Rules to remember about Nationalities In French!

Nationality And Gender In French (If Used As A Proper Noun)

Let's go over each of the rules with examples now!

RULE: GENDER OF A NATIONALITY MUST AGREE WITH THE GENDER OF THE SUBJECT: This means genders can change for nationalities, unlike countries that are either masculine or feminine and never change.

**DO NOT CAPITALIZE NATIONALITIES when they are used as adjectives to modify a noun.

• The French wine is magnificent.
  • Le vin français est magifique (m)
• The French car is in style.
  • La voiture française est en vogue (f)

In the two phrases above, "français(e)" is used as an adjective, so it's NOT capitalized.

In the above French phrases, "Vin" is masculine so the adjective "français" must agree and also be in the masculine form.  "Voiture" is feminine so the adjective "française" must agree and is in the feminine form.

• A French film
  • Un film français. (m)
• A French show
  • Une émission française. (m)

The French word "Film" is masculine so the nationality "français" must also be masculine. The French word "émission" is feminine so the nationality française must also be in feminine form. 

RULE: CAPITALIZE NATIONALITIES when they are used as nouns and refer to an inhabitant of a country.

I spoke with an English person.

• J’ai parlé avec un Anglais.(m)
• J'ai parlé avec une Anglaise.(f)

In the two phrases above, the nationality "Anglais(e)" is used as a noun and refer to a persons nationality so they are both capitalized.

The gender of the person in the first phrase is masculine  "un" so the nationality must agree and also be masculine "Anglais". In the second phrase above, the nationality of the person is feminine "une" and so her nationality should also be feminine by adding an -E to the end "Anglaise."

List of Countries And Nationalities In French with Genders
***Starts Here****

On to the list.

I have not included every single world country and nationality but there are roughly 100.

I've also included the names of French territories and the names of the continents in French and English. 

EUROPE, EU, EEU, And EFTA Countries

Nationalities with * take no article but have a gender

NORTH AMERICA

ASIA (South Eastern & Eastern)

Nationalities with * take no article but have gender

ASIA (Western)

NORTH AFRICA