Not always, no. In French, “a person” is “une personne”. It’s a feminine noun — always feminine — and it’s perfectly fine to use it for a man, because what matters here is the gender of the word itself. “An individual” is “un individu” — always masculine, even of the individual in question could be a man. A sentry is “une sentinelle”; it’s a feminine word, even though most sentinels are probably men, considering the gender ratio in the army. This dude is une sentinelle. If you add adjectives, you would use the feminine form so that it matches the word sentinelle: “a sleepy sentry” is “une sentinelle somnolente”.
That said, many (most?) words refering to human beings have feminine and masculine versions. That’s the case for most job names. The baker = le boulanger / la boulangère. The mailman = le facteur, the mailwoman = la factrice. Those words often have an ending that signals the gender (-teur is obviously masculine, -trice the feminine equivalent). Some job names are identical for both genders, but with different articles depending on the gender of the worker you’re talking about: for example the despicable Élisabeth Borne is une ministre, and the spawn-of-hell Bruno Retailleau is un ministre. Words that describe family relationships are mostly gendered too (le cousin / la cousine).
“A wasp” is “une guêpe”. It’s feminine for male as well as for female wasps, although you can add “mâle” or “femelle” if you need to be more specific. “How to recognise a male wasp?” translates as “Comment reconnaître une guêpe mâle ?”, whereas the sentence “Comment reconnaître un guêpe mâle ?” is a blatant grammatical error that no native speaker would make, because the word “guêpe” is of feminine gender, even if the specific wasp you’re talking about happens to be a male.
Some species have different words for male and female specimens. “A sheep” is “un mouton” (masculine). A male sheep would be called “un bélier” (masculine), a female sheep “une brebis” (feminine). If I say “un bélier”, you know that I’m talking about a male sheep, but if I say “un mouton”, you can’t know whether it’s male or female, despite the fact that the word is grammatically masculine. “A cat” is “un chat” (masculine). A female cat is “une chatte” (feminine), but it would be fine to call a female cat “un chat” (masculine) too, because it’s the generic name for the species. In fact, some people make a point of always calling female cats “un chat” because une chatte is also slang for female genitalia.
Sorry for the block of text, and congratulations if you’ve read this far. :-)
Edit: Why did I write all of this on a two-month old post.
Some examples of this phenomenon in French are “un ombril” -> “un nombril” (a navel, from the latin umbilicus) and “l’ierre” -> “le lierre” (the ivy, from the latin hedera).
I’m under the impression that mistakes like it’s/its tend to be more common among native speakers than among people who learn the language as teenagers/grown-ups. I might be wrong, though, it’s not like I have any data on the subject.
If it’s the 6th Republic and new constitution stuff that make you think of populism, it’s not really the case. The current French constitution was more or less imposed by De Gaulle in very specific circumstances (the political crisis caused by the Algerian independance war). A number of people (among which Mélenchon) think it gives way too much power to the president and that we should go back to a more parliamentary system.
Assez d’accord pour le point négatif. Je crains que ça devienne un truc malsain.
En ce qui concerne le point positif, les votes sont déjà visibles pour les modérateurs des commus, si je ne me trompe pas ? Est-ce que ça ferait vraiment avancer la lutte contre les bots de les rendre publics ?
Sur un plan tout à fait personnel, ça me gênerait que mes votes soient publics, donc je suis contre, mais je songe à arrêter de voter de toute façon, vu que ce n’est pas une action agréable pour moi, donc ça ne changera peut-être rien pour moi si c’est mis en place. En tout cas, si les votes deviennent publics, je ne voterai très probablement plus, parce que j’aurai l’impression de ne plus pouvoir le faire d’une façon neutre.
Il est super chaud mais il est déjà en train de refroidir, et non de se réchauffer. Donc c’est une seconde preuve qu’on nous ment et qu’en fait la terre se refroidit parce qu’elle vient de finir de cuire. Bientôt, elle sera juste assez tiède pour qu’on puisse la manger, et il n’y aura plus de faim dans le monde. 🕊
On nous fait croire que la terre se réchauffe, mais en attendant c’est bien the Fresh Prince qu’il s’appelle, et non pas the Hot Prince ! Nous sachons !
Je ne sais pas non plus. Peut-être parce qu’il construit parfois son nid dans des trous de murs ? Mais il y a pas mal d’oiseaux qui font ça. En allemand, on l’appelle Zaunkönig, le roi des clôtures, mais je ne sais pas s’il a une tendance particulière à se percher sur les clôtures.
En tout cas, il n’est peut-être pas troglodyte, mais mais on ne peut pas nier qu’il est mignon.
I wish you pleasant sexual encounters as well, most esteemed stranger.