Articles, gender and plural in French

Level A1

Articles, gender and plural in French

Every French noun is masculine or feminine, and the article tells you which: un livre and le livre, but une table and la table. In the plural the final -s is usually silent, so les livres sounds just like le livre except for the article, which is what really carries the plural when you speak. The café dialogue uses vous, the polite form for strangers, and the moving-day dialogue uses tu, for friends and family.

Six everyday nouns: livre, table, chaise, lit, pomme, voiture

Un, une, des and le, la, l', les with each noun

a / anthesomethe (plural)
un livrele livredes livresles livres
une tablela tabledes tablesles tables
une chaisela chaisedes chaisesles chaises
un litle litdes litsles lits
une pommela pommedes pommesles pommes
une voiturela voituredes voituresles voitures
un arbrel'arbredes arbresles arbres
une écolel'écoledes écolesles écoles

"A" and "the": un livre, le livre, l'école

Un and une mean "a" or "an", and le and la mean "the": J'ai un livre, Le livre est sur la table. Which one you use depends on the noun's gender, not on its first sound, so "an apple" is une pomme. Before a vowel, le and la both shorten to l': l'arbre, l'école.

In the plural there is only one "the", les, and one "some", des: les pommes, des chaises. English can drop "some" and just say "I have books", but French almost always needs an article in front of the noun: J'ai des livres. After beaucoup de, "a lot of", there is no article at all: J'ai beaucoup de livres.

Every noun is masculine or feminine: le lit, la chaise

In English a chair is just "it", but in French every noun is masculine or feminine, even everyday things: le lit (bed) is masculine, la chaise (chair) is feminine. The ending gives you only a rough hint, so learn each noun with un or une in front of it, not with l', which hides the gender.

The words around the noun change to match it, so it's un nouveau livre but une nouvelle voiture. Il and elle follow the noun's gender too, which is why someone talking about a chair says Elle est prise, "she's taken", where English says "it's taken".

Singular and plural, from les livres to les chevaux

SingularPlural
le livreles livres
la tableles tables
la chaiseles chaises
le litles lits
le gâteaules gâteaux
le journalles journaux
le chevalles chevaux
le busles bus
le prixles prix
le nezles nez

Making the plural: -s, -x, and a plural you can't hear

Most nouns add -s, as in English: le livre, les livres. Nouns in -eau add -x instead (le gâteau, les gâteaux), and most nouns in -al change to -aux (le journal, les journaux; le cheval, les chevaux). Nouns that already end in -s, -x or -z don't change: le bus, les bus; le prix, les prix.

The big trap for English speakers is that the -s and -x are silent, so lits and lit sound exactly the same. You hear the plural in the article (le lit, les lits) and in the verb: La table est neuve, but Les tables sont neuves.

At a café, with vous: Cette chaise est libre ?

Moving in, with tu: Je mets les livres où ?

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