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“Le loup s'est laissé glisser dans la grande cheminée en brique et a
atterri... PLOUF! Les fesses les premières dans la grande marmite de
soupe du petit cochon... qui était alors très chaude! Le loup a hurlé et a
bondi hors de la marmite, puis est sorti en courant de la maison et a
dévalé la route, serrant très fort ses fesses brûlées.”
One of the general guidelines in determining gender states that most
animal names are masculine. In the reading above, we see two examples
of this:
“le loup” (wolf)
“du petit cochon” (of the little pig)
A small percentage of animal names, however, are feminine.
La vache (cow)
La poule (chicken)
As in the guideline for job titles, there are nouns that are specific to the
male of the species. An example of this is “le coq” (rooster) which is
always masculine despite still being a chicken.
Another guideline discussed previously states that the ending of the
word can help determine the gender. In the excerpt above, we see “la
maison” which ends in –son and is always feminine. We also see nouns
that end with a mute –e which are “la route” and “la soupe”, so these
follow the guide that nouns ending with this sound are almost always
feminine.
 
 

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Chapter 3 - Les Articles (Articles)
French articles present a noun and indicate its gender and number. This can
be quite confusing for beginners as English equivalents are not always used
in the same way. 
Generally, if there is a noun, an article will always accompany it, unless
another determiner is used such as possessive or demonstrative adjectives.
There are three types of articles used in French:
L’article Défini (Definite Articles)
L’article Indéfini (Indefinite Articles)
L’article Partitif (Partitive Articles)