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Nouns
Examples :
l’homme, le chien, le tableau, le travail, le chêne (masculine)
la femme, la danseuse, la librairie, la cuisine}, la France (feminine)
b. Some feminine nouns ending are formed by adding ‘e’ to the masculine form.
l'ami l'amie
le cousin la cousine
l'étudiant l’étudiante
le voisin la voisine
c. Some nouns have the same form in the masculine and feminine.
un élève une élève
un enfant une enfant
un touriste une touriste
c. Nouns ending with ‘eau’ or ‘eu’ in the singular form, take ‘x’ in the plural form.
le/un gâteau les/des gâteaux
le/un feu les/des feux
l'eau les eaux
Exceptions:
le/un pneu les/des pneus
d. Certain nouns ending with ‘ou’ in the singular, take ‘x’ in the plural
le/un bijou les/des bijoux
le/un caillou les/des cailloux
le/un genou les/des genoux
le/un chou les/des choux
le/un hibou les/des hiboux
le/un joujou les/des joujoux
le/un pou les/des poux
* All other nouns ending with ‘ou’ in the singular, take ‘s’ in the plural.
le/un cou les/des cous
le/un clou les/des clous
e. Most of the nouns ending with ‘al’ in the singular, take ‘aux’ in the plural.
le/un journal les/des journaux
le/un signal les/des signaux
le/un cheval les/des chevaux
Exceptions:
le/un bal les/des bals
le/un carnaval les/des carnavals
le/un chacal les/des chacals
le/un cérémonial les/des cérémonials
le/un récital les/des récitals
In French, nouns are almost always preceded by an article or a determiner. This indicates
the gender of the noun (masculine or feminine) and its number (singular or plural). There
are two types of articles: definite articles (articles définis) (le, la, les) and indefinite
articles (article indéfinis) (un, une, des).
Indéfinis
Un Une - Des De/D’
(a/an/some)
Définis
Le La L’ Les -
(the)
In French, the indefinite articles (articles indéfinis) are un (masculine singular), une(feminine
singular) and des (plural for both genders). We use the indefinite article in the following
cases:
The French indefinite article for the plural (des) is similar to the English “some”.
Example: Léna et Lara achetent des glaces
When to use the definite article in French
The French definite articles (articles définis) are le in the masculine singular, la in the
feminine singular, l’ for singular nouns that start with a vowel, and les in the plural (both
genders). They correspond to the English article the.
We use the definite article in the following cases:
• to refer to a person or thing that has already been mentioned or is already known to
the listener/reader
Example: Elle éteint la lumière.