In a nutshell | Love always Love

The French language is evolving at breakneck speed. Each week, our language advisor dissects the words and expressions that make the headlines or give us trouble.

The names love, delight and organ are masculine in the singular, feminine in the plural, we are reminded when we publish an article in which the word love, used in the plural in the sense of “passion” or “feeling of love”, has been assigned to the masculine. But was it really a mistake? No. Rather a choice.

It should also be specified: “The words love, delight and organ can be masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural. It’s not even such a recent change. In the computerized Trésor de la langue française, we read in a remark dating back to 1964 that the “masculine gender seems today to be generalized for both numbers”.

In the plural, the word will be masculine in the current register, for example in a newspaper article. The lost and found loves of the pandemic.

We will see it in the feminine in the sustained, literary or poetic style. Forbidden loves, by Yukio Mishima. If one is attached to this feminine plural, nothing prohibits using it oneself. But if our sentence includes the phrase a diethe masculine is essential: One of his greatest loves has come back into his life.

Moreover, the name love must be used in the masculine when designating a representation of the god of love: delicately sculpted cupids.

What about the expressions “to be in love” or “to fall in love”? Depending on the source one consults, it is either a colloquial phrase or a copy of English (“to be in love”, “to fall in love”). In a text, we prefer the formulations to be in love, to fall in love. Fall in love with your neighbor, of his neighbor. Being in love with cinema, of nature.

You can also phrase your sentence differently. Be a jazz freak. Be passionate about photography. Have a passion for travel. To be (a) fan of literature, of cycling. An avid reader. A music fanatic.