Rules for using articles in French. The definite article in French. Two types of articles: indefinite and definite

The definite article has the following forms:

le- for masculine singular

la- for feminine singular

les- for plurals of both genders

The definite article indicates that the subject, due to the conditions of the situation or context, is known to those speaking about it.

The definite article accompanies both countable and uncountable nouns.

Use of the definite article:

1. A person or object is presented as completely defined, well known to the interlocutors:

• a situation for which this object is familiar, habitual

N'as-tu pas oublié les cles? — You haven't forgotten keys?
Il vous faudra attendre. Le directeur est occupé. - You'll have to wait. Director busy.

• context in which the subject has previously been mentioned

Au coin de la rue j'ai vu un homme.L'homme semblait attendre quelqu'un. — On the street corner I saw some person. It seemed that this man waiting for someone.

• the meaning of a noun when we are talking about objects that are one of a kind (soleil, lune, ciel, terre, etc.):

La Terre est ronde. — Earth round. Au printemps le ciel est bleu, le soleil brille. — In the spring sky blue, shining Sun.

• the presence of qualifying words (noun with preposition de, expressing belonging, infinitive with preposition de or subordinate clause)

C'est un livre. C'est le livre de ma sour.- This is a book. This is a book my sister.
Elle a l'habitude de se lever tot.- She has a habit get up early.
Racontez-nous le voyage que vous avez fait.— Tell us about the trip, which you have done.

• superlative adjectives, as well as adjectives seul, unique, premier, dernier, suivant, principal, etc.

C'est le meilleur livre dans ma bibliotheque. - This best book in my library.
C'était le dernier jour de la guerre. - It was last day war.

• verb prefix re-, conveying the meaning of repeated action, which determines the complement of the verb:

Vous devez refaire le travail. — You must redo work (the same one).

2. A generalized concept in full meaning: an abstract concept, a substance or an entire class of objects:

J'aime les enfants. — I love children.
Le chien est l'ami de l'homme. - Dog - man's friend.
La paresse est un grand défaut. - Laziness - big drawback.

Before words starting with a vowel or h silent, definite article le And la, forms a truncated article l': l'Afrique, l'élève, l'hiver.

Definite articles le And les merge with the prepositions in front of them de And à and form fused articles:

de + le = du	a + le = au
de + les = des	a + les = aux

Le livre du maître. Je parle au professeur.
Les cahiers deséleves. Je telephone aux parents.

Ho:

Le livre de la maîtresse. Je vais à la gare.
Le cahier de l'ami de Pierre. Je vais à l'école.

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There are only 8 articles in French. Before moving on to the table below, where they are given by category, try to understand their main purpose (the examples and exercises in this section will help you better understand and remember the rules for their use):

• an article may be required to indicate something specific (equivalent to the words "this", "this", "these"),
• mange la glace, sinon elle va fondre! ("Eat the ice cream, otherwise it will melt!": the same ice cream (portion), which is determined by the situation)
• or for a whole class of things,
• j"aime la glace ("I love ice cream": there is no idea of ​​quantity, we are talking about ice cream as a type of food);
• or to convey the idea of ​​a quantity or portion of something
• je mange de la glace chaque jour ("I eat ice cream every day": de la = some, without specification; to indicate that we are talking about one serving of ice cream, you can use the article une);

If you noticed, in the Russian translation you don’t have to use anything at all before the word “ice cream”, but for the French language it is extremely important not to forget to put articles and other function words.

To complicate the picture somewhat, nouns can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural, countable or uncountable - that is, the article can take different forms, and it is important to learn to understand the difference between une and la, or de la, as well as un and le, or du. Below, using the example of the word pain (“bread”), you can get acquainted with different cases of using the masculine article.

Two categories of articles:
definite and indefinite

units m.r.	units w.r.	plural m.r. and f.r.	Article category
le	la	les	definite articles the interlocutor knows what subject is being discussed, can often be replaced with the word "this"
un	une	des	indefinite articles for countable nouns (in pieces, “one of many”), an object unknown to the interlocutor or its quantity unknown
du	de la	--	indefinite articles (partial) for uncountable or abstract nouns (no plural!)

Which article to choose - le, un or du?

Difference between articles le And la only in indicating the gender of the French noun (masculine and feminine, respectively). Also with articles un And une(or du And de la). But to choose which article to put in front of a noun, it is not enough to know the gender of the French noun.

It is more important to learn to choose which of the three articles should be placed before a masculine word in the singular: le, un, du(all three indicate a masculine noun)? For example, the word "bread" (m.r.) in different contexts used with different articles or without an article at all, because in addition to the gender of the noun we we inform the listener (reader) of some information.

“1 loaf (loaf, bun).”	unpain	indicated for 1 unit (out of many)
"I love bread."	le pain	the article shows that we are not talking about quantity, but about bread as a type of food
“I bought some bread.”	du pain	the article shows that we are talking about a quantity unknown to the interlocutor
“I ate (all) the bread.”	le pain	the article indicates the entire quantity
“I ate (part of) the bread.”	du pain	the article shows that we are talking about only part
but: “Pass me the bread.”	le pain	the article shows that we are talking about all bread, i.e. the entire basket of bread in a request at the table (if you use the partial article du, you will put the listener in a difficult position: do you need 1, 2 or more pieces of bread, or break off part of a piece of bread?..)
"I don't eat enough bread."	peu de pain	after adverbs that denote quantity, indefinite articles are replaced by a preposition de; Why? "few"
“Eat a piece of bread.”	un morceau de pain	after words that denote quantity, indefinite articles are replaced by the preposition de; as in the previous example, the quantity is already expressed in words « piece" , therefore the article is not used
“I didn’t buy bread.”	pas de pain	when negated, indefinite articles are replaced by a preposition de; Why? quantity is 0!

Special forms of definite articles le, la, les

units m.r.	units w.r.	plural m.r. and f.r.	Article form
du	--	des	fused articles du= preposition de + le; des= preposition de + les
au	--	aux	fused articles au= preposition a + le; aux= preposition a + les
l"	l"	--	truncated articlesle And la lose a vowel if the word begins with a vowel or h mute

Read more about fused articles in the article.

Examples of using articles

J"aime le café.	I love coffee.	"coffee in general"
La lune brille.	The moon is shining.	"the one and only"
Donne-moi les clefs.	Give me the keys.	"the same ones"
Apporte uncahier.	Bring a notebook.	"some kind"
Prends une pomme.	Take an apple.	"any"
Mange des pommes.	Eat some apples.	"somewhat"
Voulez-vous du café?	Do you want coffee?	"somewhat"
Prends de la crème fraîche!	Take some sour cream.	"somewhat"
Bois de l" eau!	Drink some water.	"somewhat"
Va au magazine!	Go to the store.	au = à + le
Va à l" école!	Go to school	there is no merger of preposition and article

Print version .doc, .pdf (3 pages).

Dropping of indefinite articles

When denied

When negating, a special rule applies - the indefinite article is replaced by a preposition de :

• Il n'a pas de voiture. - He doesn't have a car.
• Il n'a pas de talent. - He has no talent.
• N"achete pas de pommes! - Don't buy apples!

Carefully! Definite articles le, la, les(and their fused forms du, des, au, aux) are not replaced when negated!

• Je n'aime pas la glace. - I don't like ice cream.
• Je ne joue pas des tambours. ( des = de + les- preposition + article) - I don't play drums.
• Ne parlez plus du travel! - Don't talk about work anymore!
• Ne va pas au magazine! - Don't go to the store!

After quantitative adverbs and words denoting quantity

After quantitative adverbs ( many , few...) or words that indicate quantity ( kilogram potatoes, cup tea...), instead of a partial article, the rule also requires a preposition de - since the quantity is expressed, there is no need to use indefinite articles.

There are only 8 articles, and you need to learn to understand what information does an article convey about a noun?. It is important to be able to distinguish two types articles.

Two categories of articles:
definite and indefinite

units m.r.	units w.r.	plural m.r. and f.r.	Article category
le	la	les	definite articles the interlocutor knows what subject is being discussed
un	une	des	indefinite articles for countable (in pieces) nouns an object unknown to the interlocutor, “one of many”
du	de la	--	indefinite articles for uncountable or abstract nouns (no plural!)

Special forms of definite articles le, la, les

units m.r.	units w.r.	plural m.r. and f.r.	Article form
du	--	des	fused articles pretext de + le and preposition de + les
au	--	aux	fused articles pretext a + le and preposition a + les
l"	l"	--	truncated articlesle And la lose a vowel if the word begins with a vowel or h mute

Examples of using articles

J"aime le café.	I love coffee.	"coffee in general"
La lune brille.	The moon is shining.	"the one and only"
Donne-moi les clefs.	Give me the keys.	"the same ones"
Apporte uncahier.	Bring a notebook.	"some kind"
Prends une pomme.	Take an apple.	"any"
Mange des pommes.	Eat some apples.	"somewhat"
Voulez-vous du café?	Do you want coffee?	"somewhat"
Prends de la crème fraîche.	Take some sour cream.	"somewhat"

Exercise

The exercise suggests listen and choose the correct answer (at the end of the exercise you can correct mistakes and listen to the phrases again); The emphasis is placed on the choice between the definite and indefinite article. You will become more familiar with two and four in separate lessons (in the exercises for them you will be able to choose or insert required article).

Do the exercise

For feminine nouns you will need to make your choice: une, de la or la.

With articles des And les simpler, since you don’t have to think about gender, and they are placed only before plural nouns. numbers (countable). If we are talking about quantity, then choose des(“buy some candy”), and if about a subject in general or known to the interlocutor, then we’ll focus on les(“remove the candy from the table”, i.e. all those that are on the table).

So, the use of the article depends on the context

If the choice of number and gender of the article is predetermined, then The “rules” by which one must choose the article category (un, du or le?) depend on the context .

Reading texts will help you better understand in which cases the definite or indefinite article is used: in the texts the difference between un and le, une and la, des and les is better visible. When performing, keep in mind that phrases are inevitably taken out of context, so you need to be able to think through the situation.

Requires consumption indefinite article phrases that we use to describe (the interlocutor does not yet know about the objects):

• c"est - This...
• il y a - there is, there is
• c"estune table - this is (some kind of) table(one item from the homogeneous class)
• sur le bureau il y a un ordinateur - on the table (known to the interlocutor) there is (some kind of) computer
• dans ma chambre il y a une pursuit - there is (some) chair in my room
• j"ai une voiture - I have (some kind of) car

However, if the item there is a definition(for example, whose is it - the genitive case in French is conveyed using the preposition de), then we use the definite article:

• c"est la voiture de mon fils - this is my son's car

The tables below provide some additional information and nuances of the use of articles, and also talk about the truncated and merged forms of the articles le, la, les.
It is highly recommended to do exercises(see menu).

Two types of articles:
uncertain and definite

1. Indefinite articles are placed before nouns that are used for the first time in conversation or have a special characteristic and indicate:

1. un, une, des Indefinite articles (with examples)

1 . The indefinite article can be considered as a numeral : one , one , some (for both genders). In Russian, we often omit these words, since we can determine singular or plural by the noun itself. the number and gender will be told to us by the endings.

In the table below, note that in French:

• endings of nouns do not uniquely determine gender (all words end in -e);
• plural ending ( -s) is not pronounced (most often).

un	un frere, unélevé	(one) Brother, (one) student
une	une voiture, uneélevé	(one) car, (one) student
des	des frères, des voitures, deséleves, deséleves	(some) brothers, (some) cars, (some) students, (some) students

2 . The indefinite article can denote objects, people, about which first mentioned in this context : "some kind ", "some kind ", "some ".

3 . An object already familiar to us may have special quality :

• un soleil rouge se lève à l"horizon - red sun rises on the horizon.

2. le, la, les Definite articles (with examples)

There are only 3 definite articles:

1 . In the most general case, definite articles le , la , les stand for " the same one ", "the same one ", "those same ones ", that is, objects, people that have already been discussed or this context allows us to clearly understand what (who) we are talking about .

• ferme la porte - close the door(the same... - which the interlocutor knows about or is pointed out to him)
• donne-moi le style - give me a pen(the same one...)
• mets les livres sur la table - put the books on the table(the same ones on the same one...)
• le livre est intéressant - interesting book(the one we're talking about)
• la mer est calme - the sea is calm(the same thing we see)
• les bananes sont mures - ripe bananas(the same ones that you bought/brought...)

2 . We will also use the definite article for one of a kind items - moon, sun, right bank (it’s the only one by the river! like the left):

• le soleil brille - the sun is shining.

3 . When the word is taken in its most general meaning(for Russian speakers this is the most difficult case to understand, i.e. it requires maximum attention from beginners):

• le chien est l" ami de l" homme - dog- man's friend.

* l" - a “truncated” article (without a vowel) is used instead le And la, if the word begins with a vowel sound; before a series of words with the letter “h” the article may not lose the vowel,

• l" enfant - child;
• l" histoire - story.

Un or Une / Le or la ?

If you have decided on the choice of article category (definite/indefinite), then choosing an article for the masculine or feminine gender is a technical task:

• you need to remember the gender of the noun (use dictionaries and when reading texts pay attention to, which also show gender and number).▲ Go to exercise

  Get acquainted with some features of the use of French articles:

It is impossible not to consider the topic " Articles in French", since nouns in French in most cases are not used on their own, but have this function word with them. The main functions of the article in French:

• giving a noun the meaning of certainty or uncertainty;
• designation of gender and number of nouns in French.

Indefinite articles in French

There are the following indefinite articles in French:

un– masculine article;

une– feminine article;

des– an article characterizing the plural of nouns.

The meaning of certainty or uncertainty is not indicated in Russian or Ukrainian, but is present in many European languages, incl. and in French, so let’s consider this new feature for us. If a person, object or phenomenon has not been previously named, it is denoted by the indefinite article. If we have already heard about it, we use the definite article in front of it. To make it more clear and understandable, let’s give a simple example:

C'est une montagne.	La montagne est grande.
This is (some as yet unknown to us) mountain.	(This mountain named in the previous phrase) is high

This example shows the first function of the indefinite article in French:

1) introduction of a new person (object, phenomenon) into a text or speech.

The second use of indefinite articles in French:

2) assigning an object to a group of similar ones without specification:

C'est une tour- This is a tower (a tower in general, without indicating which one - the Eiffel, the water tower or some other one).

3) the plural article indicates an indefinite number of similar objects: je fais des exercises– I do exercises (some amount).

If there is a related adjective before a noun, then the article is placed before this adjective: C'est une grande montagne is a high mountain.

This rule also applies to the use of definite articles in French.

Definite articles in French

The definite articles in French are as follows:

le– masculine singular article;

la– feminine singular article;

les– plural article for both genders.

The definite article is used in the following cases:

1) before a noun that was previously introduced into the context and was denoted by the indefinite article: C'est un musée. Le museé est grand et beau.

2) before nouns that are unique in their kind or in a given situation: le soleil brille – the sun is shining

3) if you need to identify persons or objects in a given situation: Les étudiants de ce groupe – students of this group

4) before plural surnames: Les Cordiers

5) before geographical names: la Suisse, l'Europe...

6) before the names of the days of the week, if something happens on the same day: le mercedi, je fais du sport– on Wednesdays I go in for sports

Articles le And la take on the appearance l', if the noun begins with a vowel or h silently: l'enfant - child, l'hiver- winter.

The fused article in French

1) Masculine definite article le forms fused forms with the prepositions in front of it in French:

With an excuse à – one-piece form au: je parle à ........ le garçon, je parle au garçon(I'm talking to... (boy) → I'm talking to the boy.

With an excuse de– one-piece form du: le livre de ....... le garçon, le livre du garçon(book (whose?)…..(boy) → boy’s book

2) Definite article plural les forms the following fused forms with the same prepositions:

With an excuse à – one-piece form aux: il parle à....les parents, il parle aux parents(he talks to….(parents) → he talks to his parents.

With an excuse de– one-piece form des: la visite de...les parents → la visite des parents: visit (whose?)…….(parents) → visit of parents.

Note: feminine definite article la and article l' with prepositions à And de in French they do not merge:

- je parle à la petite fille– I’m talking to a girl;

- je parle à l'enfant– I’m talking to a child;

- les musées de Kiev– museums of Kyiv;

- les parents de l'enfant- the child's parents.

Partial articles in French

There is a group of nouns that denote uncountable objects or abstract concepts, for example: water, salt, sugar, courage, patience, etc. The following partial articles are used with such nouns in French:

- du– with masculine nouns: je prends du thé– I drink tea;

- de la– with feminine nouns: elle prend de la salade– she eats salad;

- de l'– with nouns starting with a vowel or h silently: tu prends de l’eau- you drink water.

The partial article means that not the entire object is taken, but an indefinite amount of it. Thus, the partial article replaces the indefinite article with uncountable nouns.

Note: The partial article in French does not have a plural form, since uncountable or abstract nouns do not inflect for number.

The partial article is included in stable phrases:

fairedu ski – ski;

faire de la peinture- do painting.

In the next article we will continue to learn French for beginners and begin the topic of nouns in French.