Le ou La?

I had a sizeable scare this morning with some large banners we just had printed for retail displays. Twenty-five of them are bilingual (French and English). One of the employees here who is Francophone pointed out that the ‘Le’s should be ‘La’s. At over $150 per banner, that’s an expensive mistake. For those of you who don't know French at all, some words are considered “masculine” and others are “feminine.” Le goes before masculine words, la before feminine. The subject in question appeared to be feminine.

My first thought was that it was my fault, and I started reeling about trying to determine how I can fix the problem and keep my bosses’ confident in my abilities. However, I checked the document we received from the translator, and it was as the banners were printed.

After some research and a phonecall to the translator, it turns out that our translation is technically correct, although in Quebec, the perception is that this word is feminine.

Anyway, all this to say I thought I cost my company thousands of dollars by carelessness, but it turns out there was nothing to worry about in the first place.

*phew*