Les articles définis et indéfinis (Gender & Number)

Diamond Doyle; Lisa A Luengo; Nick Taylor

Chapitre Un

Les articles définis et indéfinis (Gender & Number)

Gender and Number

In French, all nouns have grammatical “gender.” Nouns may be “masculine” or “feminine,” but unless it is a living, breathing creature, grammatical gender is totally arbitrary.

When we refer to “number,” we are talking about whether the noun is singular or plural.

Les articles définis

Definite articles are used when you have a specific item in mind.
The English equivalent is “the.”
In French, there is a “the” for each singular gender and a shared “the” for plural:

Le – le professeur

La – la professeure

Both le and la become l’ before a vowel – l’ami / l’amie

Les – les animaux

Les – les pommes

Bookshelves containing neatly stacked books.

Je vais à la bibliothèque parce que je veux trouver un bon livre.

Les articles indéfinis

Indefinite articles are used when you do not have a specific item in mind.
The English equivalent is “a” for singular nouns and “some” for plural nouns.
In French, there is an indefinite article for each singular gender the plural is shared.

Un – un livre

Une – une fille

Des – des copains

Des – des copines

A pile of red and green apples.