Learn French: Grammatical Articles

If you do not know what role articles play in grammar, please read this first: Learn English: Grammatical Articles. Once you solidly understand the concepts then proceed with this article.

French has three types of articles: definite, indefinite, and partitive. I will cover each one below, but first I will discuss noun gender as it is important to understand the concept of gender before learning about the articles.

Noun Gender

Every noun in french has a grammatical gender; this is not to be confused with the actual gender. For example, the French word for dog, le chien, is masculine, whereas the French word for wristwatch, la montre, is feminine. The roots of these genders are very old, and so there is often no rhyme or reason to them; they must be memorized along with the noun. To draw a comparison, it is common in English to refer to a boat as she even though the boat cannot actually be female. The actual gender of the object, if applicable, is not decided by the gender of the noun. For example, while le chien means dog, it means neither male nor female dog.

Definite Articles

In French, l’article défini (the definite article) is akin to English’s definite article the. In French, however, there are four different ways a definite article can be expressed. Please examine this table:

Masculine	Feminine	Begins With Vowel Sound	Plural
le, as in le chien	la, as in la montre	l’, as in l’heure	les, as in les chiens (dogs)

As you can see above, our English word the becomes le for masculine nouns, la for feminine nouns, l’ for masculine or feminine nouns beginning with a vowel sound, or les for masculine or feminine nouns that are plural. Here are some more examples:

La cloche sonne.
The above sentence reads, “The bell rings.” In that sentence, la cloche means the bell; it is a feminine noun and so it will always be accompanied by the definite article la.

Le pont est grand.
The above sentence reads, “The bridge is large.” In that sentence, le pont means the bridge; it is a masculine noun and so it will always be accompanied by the definite article le.

L’heure est venue.
The above sentence reads, “The hour has come.” In that sentence, l’heure means the hour; it is a feminine noun, but because it begins with a vowel-sound, it begins with l’.

J’aime les étoiles.
The above sentence reads, “I love the stars.” In that sentence, les étoiles means the stars; it is a feminine noun, but because I have used it plurally, it begins with les, otherwise it would begin with l’h as it begins with a vowel-sound.

That finishes the lesson on definite articles in French; if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. Now, let’s move on to indefinite articles.

Indefinite Articles

Much like definite articles, indefinite articles depend on the gender of the noun. Please examine this chart to get a feel for indefinite articles:

Masculine	Feminine	Plural
un	une	des

The table above lists three different indefinite articles: un, une,anddes. Please have a look at these examples:

Je voudrais une voiture.
That means, “I would like a car.” The noun une voiture means a car or one car. Because voiture is feminine and not plural, we must use une.

J’ai un livre.
That means, “I have one book”, or, “I have a book.” The noun un livre means a book or one book. Since livre is a masculine noun, we use un for its indefinite article.

Est-ce que vous voulez des pommes?
That means, “Do you want some apples?” The noun des pommes means some apples. Even though pomme is feminine, it is also plural so it uses des instead of une.

Hopefully that clears up any questions about indefinite articles in French. Next is a brief lesson on partitive articles.

Partitive Articles

Partitive articles in French are used to describe uncountable objects or an unspecific amount of a given object. In English, this is akin to the words “some” or “any”. However, partitive articles in French are a bit more confusing as they have a couple rules. Have a look at this table:

Masculine	Feminine	Begins With Vowel Sound	Plural
du lait (some milk)	de la nourriture (some food)	de l’eau (some water)	des haricots (some beans)

Masculine nouns will use du, feminine nouns will use de la, nouns that begin with a vowel sound will use de l’, and plural nouns will use des. Here are some examples:

Je voudrais du lait
That reads, “I would like some milk.” A partitive article is appropriate here because milk is uncountable as a liquid. Since lait is masculine, we use the form du.

Est-ce que vous voulez de la nourriture?
That means, “Would you like some food?” Again, food in this context is uncountable. Since nourriture is feminine, we use the form de la.

Je veux de l’eau!
The above says, “I want some water!” The word for water, eau is feminine, but because it begins with a vowel sound we use de l’.

Nous mangeons des haricots
The sentence reads, “We are eating some beans.” Beans, in French, is haricots; because we are eating multiple beans, it is plural. Thus, we use des for the partitive article.

Exceptions

There are some exceptions to the above rules for partitive articles, but they are simple to understand. Here are the exceptions and some examples:

1. After adverbs of quantity (ex: a lot, much, many), the partitive article is always de. Example:

   “Je bois beaucoup de lait.”
   This means “I’m drinking a lot of milk.” Even though lait is masculine, because beaucoup (meaning much) comes first and is an adverb of quantity, the partitive article becomes de.

2. In a negative phrase, the partitive article becomes de and means any. Example:

   “Je ne mange pas de nourriture!”
   That means, “I’m not eating any food!” Despite the fact that nourriture is feminine, because the phrase is negative the partitive article changes from de la to de.

That’s it for the exceptions!

While this is only a tiny glimpse into French grammar, it will be pertinent for the entire time you are using the language. Make sure to review this from time to time in order to solidify the information.

As always, comments are welcome; I would like to make this website the best resource for you, so your input is invaluable. Thanks for reading.

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