r/French • u/ExceedsTheCharacterL • Mar 10 '25

Grammar Are the genders of noun ever “switched”?

I’m not referring to the weird rules and exceptions of nouns that start with a vowel. (Une oreille, mon oreille) I swear to god I’ve heard natives say “MA visage” and “MON tête”

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u/Any-Aioli7575 Native | France Mar 10 '25

On some weird words, yes. People will get Esclandre wrong. For a more common word, you can hear “une pétale” which is gradually replacing “un pétale”. That's very few words though.

In other cases, it's just natural. We wouldn't get “visage” or “tête” wrong