Articles

French Articles

Definite Articles

• French definite articles (‘the’ in English) are used in front of nouns when you are talking about a specific item or items.
• They change according to the gender and number of the noun they precede as well as the first letter or vowel of the noun.
• Examples: Le chat (The cat), La maison (The house), Les enfants (The children).

Indefinite Articles

• French indefinite articles (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘some’ in English) are used when the noun is not specific.
• These articles also change for gender and number.
• Examples: Un chien (A dog), Une fille (A girl), Des pommes (Some apples).

Partitive Articles

• French partitive articles (‘some’, ‘any’ in English) are used when talking about a part or quantity of something.
• These also change according to the gender and number of the noun.
• Examples: Du pain (Some bread), De la confiture (Some jam), Des carottes (Some carrots).

Contracted Articles

• French contracted articles are used in front of prepositions ‘à’ (to) and ‘de’ (of) when they precede a definite article.
• ‘Le’ and ‘Les’ will contract with ‘à’ and ‘de’ but ‘La’ will not.
• Examples: Au zoo (To the zoo), Du pain (Some bread).

Zero Article

• French often omits the article in some places where English requires it, which is called the zero article.
• This applies most often in professions and languages: e.g., “Je suis professeur” not “Je suis un professeur” (I am a teacher).
• Titles, languages, material composition, geographical names etc often don’t use the article. This rule however has many exceptions and need to be learnt as phrases.