All the articles on one grid
French has three kinds of article. The definite article (“the”) points to something specific. The indefinite article (“a”, “some”) introduces something new. The partitive article (“some”) is used for things you cannot count, like bread or water. English often uses no article at all here; French almost always needs one.
| Masculine | Feminine | Before a vowel or h | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Definitethe | ||||
| Indefinitea, an, some | ||||
| Partitivesome (uncountable) |
In the plural, masculine and feminine look the same: les and des serve both. The s of les and des is silent, except before a vowel, where it links as “z”: les amis is lay-zah-MEE. This is explained in liaison.
Endings that tell you the gender
You cannot see gender from the meaning, but the end of a noun is a strong clue. These endings hold for the great majority of nouns. Many match English endings, so you can guess the gender of thousands of words you already know.
A few common nouns break these patterns: la plage (the beach) and l’image (the picture, feminine) end in -age; le lycée (the secondary school) and le musée (the museum) end in -ée but are masculine. Learn them as you meet them.
À and de merge with le and les
Two very common prepositions, small words that show place or relation, fuse with le and les: à (to, at) and de (of, from). They never fuse with la or l’.
Making nouns plural
Most nouns add -s, as in English. Unlike English, the s is silent, so livre and livres sound the same. You hear the plural on the article instead: le livre (luh LEE-vruh), les livres (lay LEE-vruh). Five patterns cover almost every noun.
| Singular ends in | Plural | Example |
|---|---|---|
| most nouns | + s | le livre → les livres book |
| -s, -x, -z | no change | le bus → les bus bus |
| -eau, -eu | + x | le gâteau → les gâteaux cake |
| -al | -aux | le journal → les journaux newspaper |
| -ail (a few) | -aux | le travail → les travaux work, roadworks |
Adjectives follow the noun’s gender
An adjective is a describing word: small, green, happy. In French it agrees with its noun, meaning it takes a feminine or plural ending to match. The feminine usually adds -e and the plural adds -s. Most French adjectives come after the noun: une voiture rouge, “a car red”. A handful of very common ones (beau, petit, grand, bon, jeune) go before it.
Listen to petit and petite: the feminine e is silent, but it makes the t heard. Many adjectives work this way, so you often hear gender as a final consonant: grand / grande (grah(n) / grah(n)d). Adjectives already ending in e do not change: un livre rouge, une voiture rouge.
Check yourself
Choose the right word for each blank, then reveal the answer and the reason.