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

Country names and languages in French: Masculine, feminine, or capitalized?

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

*And when do you capitalize languages, nationalities, and 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!

Using Definite and indefinite Articles with nouns:

DEFINITE ARTICLES (m) = Masculin, (f) = Feminine, Plural = (pl)

THE: "LE" or "L'" (m), "LA" or "L'" (f), "LES" (pl),
INDEFINITE ARTICLES: A or AN = "UN" (m), UNE (f), SOME = DES (pl)

Before we dive into whether or not a country name is masculine or feminine, you should understand how to use indefinite an definite articles with them.

In English, there is only one definite article "THE" to identify a Noun (person place or thing) whether it's singular or plural. And there are two 2 indefinite articles "A," and "An."

Example: The Country, the countries.

However in French, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. And the definite article in French has to match not only the gender of the noun, it also has to match if it's singular or plural. 

Since countries are nouns, you must use one of four definite article for "THE."

1. LE ( Masculine )
2. La (Feminine)
3. L' (Masculine or Feminine). Use in front of a word that starts with a vowel or the letter "H," when it is silent. 
4. LES (Plural): Use with nouns that are plural. 

Example: la France (f), le Canada (m), Les Bahamas (pl), La Hongrie (f) (H is not silent), L'Honduras (H is silent.)

EXCEPTION TO THE RULE: Some countries don't take an indefinite article. 

Example: Israël and NOT L'Israël. 

MOST Country names are Feminine In French

RULE: In French, most country names that end in "e" or "ie" are feminine. These feminine country names take the definite article "LA" or "L' ". There are exceptions though. 

• l'Angleterre (f)
• l'Italie (f)
• la France (f)
• la Tunisie (f)
• la Thaïlande (f)

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 not feminine 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: In general, country names that end with a consonant are masculine and take the definite article "Le" or "L' "

• 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

Rules to remember about Nationalities and languages In French: Genders (masculine or feminine,) capitalized or not?

"Les Nationalité"

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. 

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

Below is a silly nonsensical phrase I made up to highlight capitalization and gender for nationalities and languages in French.

Notice how the word for French "FRANÇAIS" is both capitalized and not capitalized in the same sentence, and how there is an extra "es" added to the last one. 

• The French speak French with their French mothers in France.
• Les Français parlent français avec leurs maman françaises en France. 

Their are a few things going on here, so let's go over the rules now!

Nationalities must agree with the gender

#2 Gender RULE: The gender of a nationality must agree with the gender of the subject: 

While a country genders doesn't change, nationalities can change to match the gender of the subject.

Example:

•  Jean Louis is French, and Isabelle is French
• Jean Louis est français et Isabelle est française

In the above example, Jean Louis is a male, so you must use the masculine "français" to describe his nationality. And Isabelle is a female, so you must use the feminine "française" with an "e" at the end to  matcher her gender.

Here is another example. 

• A French film, and a French show.
• Un film français et 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 you must add an "e" to the end "française" to turn this nationality into its feminine form.

When to capitalize nationalities in French

#3 Capitalization rule: Only capitalize nationalities in French when they are used as a proper noun and when they refer to an inhabitant of a country. 

Now take a look at the example below where the nationality "Les Français" is capitalized. That's because it's used as a proper noun that refers to the French people as inhabitants of a country and not as adjectives.

• Les Français mangent de la très bonne cuisine française en France.
• The French eat really good French food in France

Here is another example where nationality is capitalized in French because it's being used as a proper noun of inhabitants of a country.

• I like the French
• J’aime les Français.

when not to capitalize nationalities in French

#4 Capitalizing rule: Do not capitalize nationalities in French when they are used as an adjective.

In the example below, notice that the French nationality of Jean Louis and Isabelle are not capitalized because they are not used as a proper noun. They are used as an adjective so they are not capitalized.

•  Jean Louis is French, and Isabelle is French
• Jean Louis est français et Isabelle est française

Here's one more example where the French nationality is used as an adjective.

• I like French ladies
• J'aime les femmes françaises.

Recap of capitalisation and agreement rules for nationalities and languages

So back to our original example as to why certain nationalities not always capitalized. 

The French speak French with their French mothers in France.

Les Français (#3) parlent français (#1) avec leurs maman françaises (#2,#4) en France.

• Rule #1: When talking about languages. ⇒ LOWERCASE
• Rule #2: Nationalities must agree with the gender of the subject. 
• Rule #3: The adjective is used as a noun to refer to a person. We refer to the inhabitants of a country. ⇒ UPPERCASE
• Rule #4: When nationality is used as an adjective. ⇒ LOWERCASE

The French speak French with their French mothers in France.

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

EUROPE, EU, EEU, And EFTA Countries

Remember, a countries gender never changes, it's either masculine or feminine. However, nationality has to match the gender of the thing it's describing, so they can be masculine or feminine, singularor plural and must use the correct definite article. Le, La, L', or Les 

But some nationalities don't use an article such as Israel. 

Example: I like Israel and Canada. would be written as "J'aime Israël et le Canada." Did you notice that there is no definite article in front of the country Israel but there is for Canada. 

NORTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES

ASIA (South Eastern & Eastern)

Nationalities with * take no article but have gender

ASIA (Western)

NORTH AFRICAN COUNTRIES

That's all folks. Good luck.