Is image masculine or feminine in French?
Image is feminine: une image, l’image, plural les images. The elided l’ hides the gender, but adjectives reveal it: une belle image, une image floue. It is a frequent trap because its ending looks masculine.
Why is image feminine when -age is usually masculine?
The -age ending is one of the most dependable masculine markers in French: le voyage, le message, le garage, le fromage are all masculine. A small group of common words breaks the rule and is feminine: l’image, la page, la plage, la cage, la nage, la rage. The reason is that in these words the -age is not the usual masculine suffix but part of the word’s root, often from a feminine Latin source (imago for image). So the reliable move is to memorise this short feminine list as exceptions, and treat every other -age word as masculine by default. That single list removes most -age gender errors at once.
How do you use image in a sentence?
Feminine agreement is visible in each:
Preply
Apprendre une langue avec un tuteur en ligne
- Cette image est très nette. (This image is very sharp.)
- Il a une bonne image de l’entreprise. (He has a good image of the company.)
- Les images du documentaire sont magnifiques. (The documentary’s images are magnificent.)
The mistake learners make with image
Because of the -age ending, learners write un image or un beau image. It is feminine: une image, une belle image. Keep the feminine -age exceptions together — image, page, plage, cage, rage — and the rest of the -age words stay safely masculine.
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 image is never a guess again.
