Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
In French, most nouns need to be supported by an article. One type of article is a definite article
which in English is the'. French articles are also masculine or feminine, singular or plural,
according to the gender and number of the noun they determine. There can also be an alternative
version of an article if the noun it precedes begins with a vowel a, e, i, o, u. Here are the definite
articles in French:
Masculine singular: le (l')
Arnold le tatou
Joe-Bob l'cureuil
Betty la chatte
l'Universit du Susquehanna
les tatous
les cureuils
les chats
les universits
the armadillos
the squirrels
the cats
the universities
In the examples above, that le and la both become l' when they precede a noun beginning with a
vowel or a silent h: l' escargot, l' universit.
When les is followed by a word starting with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) the normally silent s of les is
pronounced.
Identifying a specific noun:
The definite article is used to identify a specific noun or to refer to a noun that has already been
specified.
Joe-Bob: Vous connaissez la chapelle Universit
de Susquehanna?
There is an exception though with the days of the week. They do not require an article in
instances where they do not indicate a recurrence. Example:
Lundi, il a rendez-vous avec Tina.
The difference between this and the reoccurrence is the activity happening on the day of the
week is not repeating. In this example above, the date with Tina is a onetime occurrence that
happening just this Monday, not every Monday.
Months of the year never require an article. Example:
Cependant Joe-Bob adore mars
Selinsgrove.
When in a series
This article is usually repeated in series. Unlike English where you would use just commas in
French you would use le, la, l, les. Example:
Tina: Arnold, aide-moi mettre la table!
Arnold, help me set the table! Bring the
Apporte les assiettes, les couteaux, les verres,
plates, knives, glasses, napkins, and wine.
les serviettes et le vin.
With words that are in a series the article precedes every noun in the series along with a comma
to separate. I am not exactly why this is this way since the ending of the noun itself is already
making the noun plural. However this is just one part of the entire article that has to be
memorized.
Personally overall I did not find this to be a horribly difficult lesson to comprehend. It can be
difficult to know when to use the definite articles verses the indefinite and partitive articles that I
have posted as part of my Guide de grammaire page on my blog.