French grammar exercises: a drill for gender, a or à, and ce or se

French grammar exercises let you practise the small choices you make in almost every sentence, and the drill above gives you three of them: the gender of a noun, a or à, and ce or se. Tap an answer, see the right one at once, and move on. Every answer comes from the Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL) of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF), the Québec government’s language reference. For verb forms, try the French conjugation practice and Passé composé practice drills. For the two past tenses, read Imparfait vs passé composé.

What do these French grammar exercises cover?

These French grammar exercises cover three groups, with 34 items in all. Each group comes from one or two BDL pages:

The gender items are nouns, such as horloge or avion [1][2]. The a and ce items are the BDL’s own example sentences, with one word replaced by a blank [3][4]. The rest of each sentence is unchanged.

How does this French grammar practice drill work?

This French grammar practice drill shows a noun or a sentence with a blank, and two buttons. Tap the one you think is right.

• One tap per item. The drill colours your choice and marks the right answer.
• Pick a group. The buttons at the top choose All or one of the three groups.
• Up to 10 per round. A round draws up to 10 items at random from the group you pick: 10 for All or for gender, 7 for a or à, 9 for ce or se. At the end you see your score and the items you missed.
• Nothing is sent. The drill runs in your browser, and nothing you tap leaves it.

A tap counts only if it is exactly the right word. On an a or à item, a without the accent is a different word from à, so tapping the wrong one shows “Not quite.” and the right answer, and counts as a miss.

Why do learners get the gender of French nouns wrong?

The OQLF says people sometimes hesitate over the gender of French nouns, especially nouns for objects or concepts rather than living things [1][2]. Nouns that start with a vowel are the most likely to cause doubt, it says [1][2]. They are often preceded by the elided l’ rather than le or la, and their gender is less explicit [1][2].

The BDL keeps two lists for this. One holds feminine nouns that people often use in the masculine, such as armoire, auto and orthographe [1]. The other holds masculine nouns that people often use in the feminine, such as autobus, escalier and hôpital [2]. The drill takes 9 nouns from each list. Its answer for each noun is the list the noun is on.

Some nouns have a history. The OQLF notes that sandwich is listed as masculine but is often used in the feminine in Québec [2]. It also says réglisse is always feminine in Québec but sometimes masculine in Europe [1]. The drill leaves out every noun the two pages flag this way.

How do you choose between a and à?

A without an accent is the verb avoir in the third person singular of the présent, and à with a grave accent is a preposition, the OQLF says [3]. They sound almost the same but do different jobs [3].

The BDL gives one trick. Replace the word with avait, the imparfait of avoir [3]. If the sentence still works, write a; if not, write à [3]. Its example is “Il a rédigé son rapport à temps.” The a passes the trick, as “avait rédigé” shows [3]. Avait cannot replace the à before temps, so it keeps its accent.

One BDL sentence holds both: “Elle a avantage à consulter un spécialiste.” [3] The drill asks about each blank on its own.

How do you choose between ce and se?

Ce is a masculine singular demonstrative, and se is a reflexive personal pronoun, singular or plural, the OQLF says [4]. Its short examples are ce garçon for the first, and il se regarde and ils se regardent for the second [4].

The BDL adds three points [4]:

• Ce as a determiner points to something present or to something just mentioned.
• Ce as a pronoun is most often the subject of être, as in c’est beau. It also comes before qui and que, and in fixed phrases such as ce faisant.
• Se appears only in pronominal constructions. It is a third person pronoun.

One BDL sentence uses both: “Il se regarda attentivement dans le miroir et sourit, satisfait de ce qu’il était devenu.” [4] Here se goes with the verb, and ce comes before qu’.

How should you use French grammar exercises like these?

Use French grammar exercises like these to answer from memory first, then read the BDL page behind each miss. One study points that way, for its own participants:

• Keep recalling after the first right answer. In a 2008 study, students learned foreign language vocabulary words [5]. Once a word was recalled correctly, more studying had no effect on delayed recall, but more testing had a large positive effect [5]. The study did not use French grammar.

Ways to use the drill, as general suggestions:

• Short rounds, often. Come back on another day rather than doing many rounds at once.
• Say the reason aloud. For a or à, say whether avait fits. For ce or se, say whether the word goes with a verb.
• Start from your misses. If most misses are in one group, pick that group next round.
• Open the source. Each BDL page gives the rule behind its items, and the two gender lists hold many more nouns than the drill uses [1]-[4].

For verbs, the French conjugation practice drill works the same way, with typed answers. The a or à rule leans on the imparfait, which Imparfait vs passé composé explains.

Common mistakes

• Guessing gender from the ending. Horloge and énigme are feminine, while exemple and incendie are masculine, per the BDL lists [1][2].
• Learning a noun with l’. The OQLF says that for nouns starting with a vowel, often preceded by l’, the gender is less explicit (“moins explicite”) [1][2].
• Writing à for the verb. If avait fits, the BDL says to write a, without an accent [3].
• Writing ce where a pronominal verb needs se. Se appears only in pronominal constructions, as in ils se regardent [4].
• Reading a drill score as a level. It is practice, not an assessment.
• Trusting a copied rule, including this one. Reference pages are updated. Compare each OQLF page with the date at the top of this one.

See also: French adjectives.

See also: French articles and gender.

See also: the French grammar guide.

Sources