Articles

Les articles

An article is a word that modifies a noun in a particular way, by stating whether the noun is specific, unspecific, or partial. French articles agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.

There are three types of French articles:

Definite / Défini

The definite article indicates that the speaker is referring to either a specific noun or to a class of nouns in a general sense. The English definite article, the, has four equivalent forms in French, depending on the gender and number of the noun as well as what letter it begins with.

Singular					Plural
Masculine	le	le livre	book		les	les livres
Feminine	la	la table	table			les tables
Vowel/mute h	l’	l’abricot	apricot			les abricots

Indefinite / Indéfini

The indefinite article indicates that the speaker is referring to either an unspecific noun or, in the singular, to one of something. The English indefinite article has four forms: a, an, one, and some, while the French has three, depending on the gender and number of the noun.

Singular				Plural
Masculine	un	un livre		des	des livres
Feminine	une	une table			des tables

Partitive / Partitif

The partitive article indicates that the speaker is referring to only a portion or someof an uncountable noun, often food. There are four forms in French, depending on the gender and number of the noun as well as what letter it begins with.

Singular					Plural
Masculine	du	du beurre	butter		des	des asperges	asparagus
Feminine	de la	de la tarte	pie			des épinards	spinach
Vowel/mute h	de l’	de l’argent	money			des pâtes	pasta