France is a woman and her name is Marianne! But do you know why? In this short video, I'll take you through the origins of the word France, where this famous Marianne comes from, what she represents, and finally, a little review on the gender of countries. By the end of this video, you'll have mastered the use of prepositions and will feel more comfortable speaking! Let's get started!
France is not the first name of this territory in the heart of Europe. It was called Gaul, or rather Gaules, because there were several of them. If you know anything about comics, you've probably read the adventures of Asterix and Obelix, the famous Gauls.
In short, after the fall of the Roman Empire, a barbarian people from Northern Europe, the Franks, imposed themselves on these lands.
It was they who formed the first dynasty of French kings, the Merovingians. That's why France is called France. Franc would have meant spear or free in Old German. This meaning is still found today in the expressions "zone franche" and "port franc", meaning free zone and free port respectively. Hey, did you know all that?
Okay, so we know why France is called France, but what does Marianne have to do with it? Marianne is a name made up of the two most popular names in ancient France: Marie and Anne. The Virgin Mary and her mother Anne, Marianne. The Virgin Mary and her mother Anne, Marianne.
The figure of Marianne appeared at the time of the French Revolution, symbolizing the change of regime. The symbolism was obvious: she was the mother of the country, the nurturing mother who protected the children of the fledgling Republic.
Today, it can be found just about everywhere, in songs, French emblems, town halls etc.
You're going to say to me "ah right, Marianne is France, she's a woman so that's why we say la France and not le France?" Not at all!
There's a simple rule for determining the gender of countries. If the country's name ends with an "e", it's feminine. We say la Chine, l'Italie, la Colombie. This is the case for most countries, with the exception of 5-6 such as Cambodge, Mexique and Mozambique. If the country ends with another letter, it's masculine: le Canada, le Japon, le Luxembourg. There are also plural countries, such as les États-Unis and mes Émirats.
To sum up, for feminine countries we use "la", for masculine countries we use "le".
Note that if the country begins with a vowel, we'll elide l'Iran, not le Iran. In French, we always try to avoid hiatus. What we favor is the melodic aspect of the language, that's how it is. Be careful when a verb is followed by the preposition à. In this case, you need to use contracted articles: au, en and aux. We therefore use en for masculine countries beginning with a vowel. The same applies to states: je voyage en Californie. On the other hand, you'll always use à for cities: Paris, London etc. It's much easier for cities, in fact. Got it all figured out?
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