Gender

Introduction 

In English, nouns do not have a gender. 

Some nouns refer to males and others to females (waiter, waitress; niece, nephew; duck, drake; goose, gander). However, this fact has no effect on the rest of the sentence. We say It was the right waiter or It was the right waitress. You could say that the person has a gender, but that the noun representing it doesn't. And in any case, most nouns refer to things, or can be applied to either gender (house, business, institution, friend, pilot, believer). 

In French all nouns, without exception, are either feminine or masculine and their gender affects other words around them which have to agree with them in gender (and in Number). 

In French you say C'était le bon garçon but C'était la bonne serveuse (It was the right waiter/waitress). Notice that bon, which usually means good, means right here. This is a case of Multiple Meanings. You also say un grand problème, because problème is masculine, but une grande fortune, because fortune is feminine. This means that most Adjectives and Determiners (words that accompany nouns) have four slightly different forms. 

The gender of a noun will also require the agreement of the Past Participe of the verb in some cases. This is a big problem when writing French, but it should not affect your understanding when reading (or listening).