1.14: Structure - Déterminants - articles définis et indéfinis
- Page ID
- 104337
In this section, you will learn about:
- Definite articles (le, la, l', les)
- Indefinite articles (un, une, des)
- Gender and number agreement
Listen to the audio clips that follow on this page to hear the French pronunciation of vocabulary and examples presented.
On étudie !
(a) The most common type of adjective used is the determiner, also known as an article. An article, such as "the" or "a", introduces a noun and it must be placed before the noun. Like any adjective, it must also agree with the gender of the noun(s) that it modifies. There are two types of articles: "definite articles" (articles définis) and "indefinite articles" (articles indéfinis). Here are the singular forms with gender agreement:
| Genre | Singulier | Pluriel (a, an) |
|---|---|---|
| Masculin | un (a, an) | des (Ø, some) |
| Féminin | une (a, an) | des (Ø, some) |
| Genre | Singulier | Pluriel (a, an) |
|---|---|---|
| Masculin | le, l' (the) | les (the) |
| Féminin | la, l' (the) | les (the) |
| Genre | Défini (the) | Indéfini (a, an) |
|---|---|---|
| Masculin | le livre (the book) |
un livre (a book) |
| Féminin | la page (the page) |
une page (a page) |
(b) The articles le and la become l' before words that begin with a vowel or a silent h. For example:
l'étudiant, l'avenue, l'île, l'université, l'hôpital, l'homme
These are called élisions. An elision is a type of contraction that occurs when two words are combined: one or more letters are dropped and replaced with an apostrophe. In English, elisions like "I'm" and "can't" are optional and indicate informality.
(c) When nouns are plural, the articles must also be plural in order to agree with them. Most plural nouns in French end in -s. There are also some irregular plurals such as -x: le chapeau => les chapeaux; beau => beaux. Here are the plural forms with number agreement:
| Genre | Défini (the) | Indéfini (Ø, some) |
|---|---|---|
| Masculin | les livres | des livres |
| Féminin | les pages | des pages |
- In English, you usually don't use a plural indefinite article (like "some"). Instead we just say the plural noun without an article: thus, "a shoe" simply becomes "shoes".
- Notice how the gender (masculine, feminine) distinction seems to have disappeared with these plural articles (les, des). However, the nouns have not lost their gender, and any other adjectives that are added to them must still agree with them in gender.
(d) Since each noun is either masculine or feminine (gender) and singular or plural (number), all adjectives used to describe — or modify how we understand — these nouns must agree with the gender and number of the nouns. For example:
| Singulier | Pluriel |
|---|---|
| un chapeau noir | des chapeaux noirs |
| une robe bleue | des robes bleues |
| le chapeau blanc | les chapeaux blancs |
| la chaussure rouge | les chaussures rouges |
| l'imperméable jaune | les imperméables jaunes |
In spoken French, we don't hear the plural -s so we rely on other sounds to determine if it's plural or singular. For example, compare the pronunciation of the singular le to the plural les.
On approfondit !
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