Question #6659   Submitted by Answiki on 09/16/2022 at 07:55:33 PM UTC

In French, is I.R.M. a masculine or feminine noun?

Answer   Submitted by Answiki on 09/16/2022 at 07:55:09 PM UTC

Short answer: I.R.M. is a female acronym, it is appropriate to say and write une I.R.M.


IRM is an acronym that stands for Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). According to the French Academy:


The gender of an acronym or abbreviation is determined by the gender of the nucleus of the noun phrase that the acronym or abbreviation formed before the reduction. 


Here, the core is the feminine noun imagerie, so the acronym I.R.M. is feminine. In usage, I.R.M. is still used in the masculine. However, the feminine is clearly preferred as confirmed by the Google Ngram graphic below:



The number of results for each gender in Google searches confirms the preference for the feminine:



4 events in history
Question by Answiki 09/16/2022 at 07:55:59 PM
In French, is I.R.M. (RMI) a masculine or feminine noun?
Question by Answiki 09/16/2022 at 07:55:33 PM
In French, is I.R.M. a masculine or feminine noun?
Answer by Answiki on 09/16/2022 at 07:55:09 PM

Short answer: I.R.M. is a female acronym, it is appropriate to say and write une I.R.M.


IRM is an acronym that stands for Imagerie par Résonance Magnétique (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). According to the French Academy:


The gender of an acronym or abbreviation is determined by the gender of the nucleus of the noun phrase that the acronym or abbreviation formed before the reduction. 


Here, the core is the feminine noun imagerie, so the acronym I.R.M. is feminine. In usage, I.R.M. is still used in the masculine. However, the feminine is clearly preferred as confirmed by the Google Ngram graphic below:



The number of results for each gender in Google searches confirms the preference for the feminine:



Question by Answiki 09/16/2022 at 07:51:58 PM
In French, should we say un I.R.M. or une I.R.M ?
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