I'm still very slowly plugging away at French lessons in Duolingo and, although I have ultimately not progressed much over the last number of months, I'm at a point where I'm really learning that Duolingo, by virtue of the way lessons are structured, does a shit job of actually explaining the rules of grammar in general and verb conjugation in particular. I still find I'm often guessing about the proper conjugation because it's never really explained.
Also, how does anyone who didn't grow up speaking the language know which nouns are masculine and which are feminine? There seems to be little rhyme or reason to it. I'm frequently guessing, often incorrectly.
Honestly, as a native speaker I'm not always sure and I'm not the only one. There's always a confusion about some words and regional preferences.
For example:
Is it "une avion" or "un avion"
I always need to google it.
