Definite and Indefinite Articles |
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What do la, le, and l’ all have in common? Yes, they all mean "the…" But they also are singular. They can only talk about something that is alone. Keep that in mind. ...
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You remember genders, right? Masculine and feminine? Good. Un and une both mean "a" or "an." Un is masculine and une is feminine.
What’s this? Both un and une went before a vowel and were unchanged! These words do not change for vowels.
Can we do this?:
un fille
Answer: No, because un is masculine and fille is feminine.
How about this?:
un’amie
Answer: No, because you don’t change "une" for a vowel. Un and une stay the same, even if put in front of vowels.
Un and une are both singular articles. Remember that. ...
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You remember le and la, right? Un and une?
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What some people wonder is the difference between un/une and la/le/l’. It’s like asking the difference between "the" and "a/an". When you say "the pencil," there is a sense that you are talking about a specific pencil. When you say, "a pencil," it sounds more like you’re talking about any random pencil. When you say "the pencils," it sounds like you are talking about a specific group of pencils. Which brings us to plural articles…
La and le become les, pronounced "lay." Les can be used in front of words beginning with vowels or consonants and works with both genders.
Notice what happened to the word "amie" when we made it plural. We added an "s" to the end. This works with just about every French word. However, if a word already ends with "s" in its singular form, you don’t change it. The plural "s" is not pronounced.
Also note that les stayed the same, even though amie begins with a vowel. It didn’t become l’. You see, that rule works to make sure two vowels don’t come together. (La amie. Le homme. Doesn’t it sound cumbersome?) Les ends with the consonant "s."
"But wait," you say, "Remember careful? The ‘s’ is silent!" True… Which brings us to another rule in French pronunciation: if a word ends with a consonant other than "h," that consonant will usually carry over. Remember that old phrase "Whazzup?!" This is a similar effect. The "s" in les carries over to "A" in "amie." It sounds like "Le zamie." Why the "z"? Remember, the French "s" sounds like a "z" in a liaison. However, it’s still spelled "les amies."
Can we do this?:
Les amie
Answer: No. The article and the noun don’t match. Les is plural, but "amie" doesn’t have an "s" at the end and is singular.
How about this?:
L’hommes
Answer: No. Because "les" ends in a consonant, we don’t have to worry about that rule, even if it precedes a word that begins with a vowel.
This introduces me to another point: What if the next word starts with an "h"? Ignore the "h" and carry over to the vowel following it. "Les hommes" will sound like "Le zomme."
In short, les is pretty useful. It can go before both masculine and feminine nouns and nouns that start with consonants or vowels, as long as they are plural. Always remember to check that your articles and nouns match.
The final draft of our "The" table is:
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Remember un and une? Un was masculine and une was feminine. Both of them were singular. The plural form of both is "des." Des is pronounced like "day." Like les and almost every other French word ending with a consonant, des will carry over the next word. Des would translate to "some" or "any."
Look at that! Des is both masculine and feminine!
Can we do this?:
des homme
Answer: No, because the article and the noun don’t match! Although "des" has no gender, it can only be plural. Homme is singular while des is plural.
The next draft of the a/an table is:
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