Articles
Introduction
The article is the most common type of Determiner.
about Determiners.
Articles are often used in French where no article is necessary in
English, so watch out for this when trying to understand or translate.
Forms
French has three sorts of articles: the definite article,
the indefinite article and the partitive
article. Each one has several forms, to indicate Gender
and Number.
The Definite Article.
English has one form: the.
French has four different forms.
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Masc. Sing.
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Fem. Sing.
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Masc. Plur.
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Fem. Plur.
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le, l'
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la, l'
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les
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les
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le verre, les verres,
the glass glasses
la crainte, les craintes, fear
fears
le château, les châteaux,
the castle castles
l'eau, les eaux, water
waters
The l' form is used in front of a singular word beginning
with a vowel or a mute h, as in l'orange
or l'homme. (Some words in French begin with what is known
as an aspirated h, which is not pronounced but requires
the full form of words (like le or la) that
precede it: le hibou, la haie).
You don't need to worry about this for understanding French.
Contractions
The prepositions de and à combine
with the articles le and les to make what
are called contracted forms, or contractions:
Forms
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Examples
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à + le = au
à + les = aux
de + le = du
de + les = des
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Aller au supermarché
(to go to the
supermarket), aux
toilettes.
le prix du pain (the
price of bread)
le début des vacances
(the beginning of
the holidays)
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de + le = du
de + les = des
à + le = au
à + les = aux
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Le début du siècle
(The beginning of
the century)
Grâce aux employés
(Thanks to the
employees )
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The Indefinite Article.
Again, there are more forms in French than in English. English has
two forms: a and an.
French has a plural form, while English usually drops the article in
the plural.
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Masc. Sing.
|
Fem. Sing.
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Masc. Plur.
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Fem. Plur.
|
|
un
|
une
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des
|
des
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Un verre, des verres, a
glass, glasses
Une crainte, des craintes, a
fear, fears
The Partitive Article.
This article has no plural form. It is usually not translated
in English. Sometimes it corresponds to some or any.
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Masc. Sing.
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Fem. Sing.
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Masc. Plur.
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Fem. Plur.
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du, de l'
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de la, de l'
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|
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du pain, de l'argent,
de la fatigue,
Bread, money, tiredness
The partitive article is used with nouns representing entities which
cannot be counted as such, abstract things like disgust, fear, or concrete
things like bread or money.
Les serpents nous inspirent du dégoût.
Snakes disgust us (literally: inspire disgust in us).
Il faut de l'argent.
It takes money.
Translation Tip
Several forms of the article des, du, de la, de l', de
are identical to combinations of the preposition de with
an article. In other words, des, or de la,
etc. could mean either some or of the:
la destruction de l'ozone
the destruction of (the) ozone
boire de la bière
to drink (some) beer
It's important to consider both possibilities when trying to understand
a text.
Exercises
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