Hello Bebe, - Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine. For example : arbre, maire, maître, couple, chapitre, livre, bronze, bonze, annuaire, gorille etc. are masculine. - Many feminine nouns don't end in -e, such as maison, main, catin, institution, infection, guerilla, cité, télé, moto, auto, gym, guenon... - If there is a singular determiner or an adjective before the noun, it may indicate its gender. "Mon", "un", "quel", "le", "ce", "cet", "du" are all masculine. But "l'", "les", "des", "mes", "ces" (etc.).... won't help you determine the gender of the following noun. - Some endings can be often seen in feminine or masculine words, for example : words ending in "ière" (policière), "ère" (bouchère), "ette" (tablette), "ienne" (musicienne), "tion" (audition), "arde" (poularde), "asse" (tignasse), "esse" (ogresse), "elle" (voyelle), "ité" (félicité) are often feminine words whereas words ending in "ier" (policier), "er (boucher), "et" (coquelet), "eau" (tableau), "ien" (musicien), "toire" (auditoire), "ard" (traquenard), "eil" (sommeil), "euil" (écureuil) are more often masculine. (The list of these endings is much longer.) However, there are many exceptions... As a result, when you learn a new word in French, you should always learn its gender in the meantime, searching it in the dictionary if there is no determiner or adjective to indicate its gender when you meet it for the first time.

Feminine nouns in French usually end with an "e." Also, if you are reading French and you see a "la" or an "une" or a "cette" before the noun, then you know that the noun is feminine. There are some exceptions and for those you will just have to memorize them. I hope this helps. Sorry, I have trouble recognizing them too, but this is what I go by.

Hello, Muriel d.F is right. However all female identities like occupations, descriptions, entities will be considered a feminine noun in French language as in many other languages as well. The same goes for masculine identities. une gouvernante, une maîtresse, une dame, une fille etc un garcon, un monsieur, un rentier, un réparateur etc.. Otherwise you should learn them by heart and by practicing you will end up recognizing the article of the noun automatically .

Unfortunately there are a lot of exceptions: une souris, une couleur, une question, are all feminine words. Furthermore in other European languages with genders, like German, the genders may be different: le soleil (masculine) - die Sonne (feminine), so it's difficult to find a logic behind why some folks chose one gender and some the other.