Is amour masculine or feminine in French?
Amour is masculine in normal, everyday French: l’amour, un amour, un grand amour. For writing and exams, treat it as masculine every time. There is one famous quirk — in a literary or poetic register, the plural amours can be feminine — but that is a stylistic exception, not something you need in a TCF or DELF response.
Why is amour masculine when -eur is often feminine?
Many abstract nouns ending in -eur are feminine: la peur, la douleur, la chaleur, la valeur. Amour looks like it belongs to that group, but it does not: it is masculine, alongside a small set of others such as le bonheur and le malheur. The distinction is subtle — feminine -eur nouns tend to name a pure quality (heat, fear, pain), while amour, bonheur and honneur broke toward the masculine over the history of the language. The practical takeaway: the -eur rule is a good default, but amour is a high-frequency word you should lock in by hand.
How do you use amour in a sentence?
These examples keep amour in its standard masculine form:
Preply
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- L’amour rend la vie plus douce. (Love makes life sweeter.)
- Il a vécu un grand amour à vingt ans. (He had a great love at twenty.)
- C’est un amour sincère et profond. (It is a sincere, deep love.)
The mistake learners make with amour
English speakers often reach for une amour or a feminine adjective (une amour vraie), influenced by the -eur nouns that really are feminine. In standard French it is masculine: un amour vrai, mon premier amour. Save the feminine plural de folles amours for poetry — it will read as a mistake, not a flourish, in an exam script.
When you are unsure of any noun’s gender while writing — in a TCF message, a DELF letter, or everyday French — verify it before you commit it to the page. The French Gender Checker returns the correct article, the plural, and the rule behind the gender for any noun in a single lookup, so a word like amour is never a guess again.
