GENERAL INFO

gens (masculine plural noun): Means "people" in a general, unspecified sense, often referring to a group or community.

USAGE

It's commonly used like "Il y a des gens" (There are people) or "les jeunes gens" (young people). It often appears with adjectives, which causes its main grammatical trap.

TRAPS

Even though gens is masculine plural, when combined with adjective(s) think:

before → often feminine

after → masculine

(It’s irregular, so exposure matters more than memorizing every rule. For more details, see below)

Gens is never used with a numeral: you don’t say "cinq gens" or "une dizaine de gens", but "*cinq personnes*" (five people) or "*une dizaine de personnes*" (about ten people).

FURTHER DETAILS

“Gens” is grammatically tricky because adjectives don’t always agree the same way.

__Adjective BEFORE__ “gens” → feminine

*de bonnes gens* (good people)

__Adjective AFTER__ “gens” → masculine

*des gens intelligents* (intelligent people)

If there are __TWO adjectives before__ “gens” → first = masculine

*de vrais braves gens* (truly good people)

__With “tous / toutes”__

Usually: tous (masculine) → *tous ces gens*

But: *toutes* if followed by a feminine adjective → *toutes les bonnes gens*

__Fixed expressions__ → always masculine

*gens de lettres, gens de loi, jeunes gens, ...*