Articles

Definite Articles

• French definite articles are the equivalent of English “the”. They always agree in gender and number with the noun they introduce.
• They are “le” (masculine singular), “la” (feminine singular), “l’“ (before vowel sound or mute h), and “les” (plural).
• Use of definite articles in French is more frequent than in English, such as before abstract nouns and plural nouns.

Indefinite Articles

• Indefinite articles in French are equivalent to English “a/an” or “some”.
• The French indefinite articles are “un” (masculine singular), “une” (feminine singular), and “des” (plural).
• “Des” changes to “de” or “d’“ after most adverbs of quantity.

Partitive Articles

• Partitive articles express an undefined quantity.
• They are formed by “de” + definite article (“du”, “de la”, “de l’“, and “des”). Here, “du” is used for masculine singular, “de la” for feminine singular, “de l’“ before vowel sound or mute h, and “des” for plural.
• After a negative verb, “de” or “d’“ is used instead of the partitive article, unless the negation is ‘ne…que’ (only).

Contracted Articles

• Contracted articles are instances where “à” and “de”, combined with the definite articles (“le” and “les”), form “au”, “aux”, “du”, and “des”.
• Exceptions to this rule include when these prepositions are followed by an infinitive or are part of a fixed expression.

Remember to always pay attention to the context of the sentence when deciding which type of article to use, as they can drastically change the meaning of a sentence.