French Articles: List, Grammar, Examples, Exercises

French articles are small words placed in front of a noun to indicate whether it is something specific or not. There are three types of articles in French: definite (le, la, les), which are used to refer to something in particular; indefinite (un, une, des), which are used to refer to something in a non-specific way.

The articles agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. This means that articles are used according to the gender and number of people, objects or animals they refer to. It involves, of course, learning the gender of each word.

Definite article in French: Le, las, les

French definite articles (L’article défini) are le, la, les and all mean “the”.

French	English	Use
Le	The	Singular and masculine.
La		Singular and feminine.
Les		Plural, both masculine and feminine.

Examples

Le garçon. – The boy. (Garçon is a masculine noun)
Le soleil. -The sun.
La fille. – The girl. (Fille is a feminine noun)
La maison verte. – The green house.
Les maisons vertes. – The green house. (plural) (Maisons in a noun in plural because is more than pme house and it’s feminine.)
Les filles. – The girls.
Les garçon.s – The boys.

Contraction of le (L’)

When le and la accompany a noun that begins with a vowel or h, they adopt the form L ’.

L’hiver .- The winter
L’orange. – The Orange.
L’étudiant. – The student.

French Indefinite article: Un, un, des

Indefinite articles (Article Indéfini) are un, une, des,(A, an and some).

French	English	Use
Un	A, an	Singular and masculine
Une	A, an	Singular and feminine
Des	Some	Plural, both masculine and feminine.

Examples

Un gâteau blanc. – A White cake.
Un chat. – A cat.
Une pomme. – An apple.
Des robes noires. – Some black dresses.
Des chats. – Some cats.

Exercise

Of these two options, which one is a way to say "The" in French?

Fill in the blank with the correct form of the French definite article (The)

Remember articles agree on gender and number with the noun they accompany, therefore, to know which article to use you must know the gender of the noun.

garçon

garçons

femmes

fleur

maison

étudiant (inluding males and females)

Fill in the blank with the correct form of the French infinite article (A, An, Some))

maison

camion

maison rouge

chevaux

infirmières

Suggested exercise

Write two sentences using each form of the definite article (Le, las, les) and two sentences for each form of the indefinite articles in French (Un, une, des).