What is the gender of a cat in French? - briefly
The gender of a cat in French is feminine for females (la chatte) and masculine for males (le chat).
What is the gender of a cat in French? - in detail
In the French language, nouns are assigned a gender, either masculine or feminine, which affects the agreement of adjectives, articles, and other modifiers. When it comes to the word for "cat" (chat), it is important to understand that this noun is inherently masculine. This means that any adjective, article, or pronoun used in conjunction with "chat" must also be masculine to ensure grammatical correctness.
For instance, if you want to describe a cat as beautiful (beau), you would say "un chat beau." Here, the indefinite article "un" is masculine, and the adjective "beau" agrees with it in gender. Similarly, if you were referring to a specific cat, such as "the cat," you would use the definite article "le," which is also masculine: "le chat."
In summary, the word for "cat" in French is inherently masculine, and all modifiers used with it must be in the masculine form to maintain grammatical accuracy.