Articles

In French, a noun is always paired with an article. These articles may be definite articles or indefinite articles.

LES ARTICLES DÉFINIS

Definite articles translate to “the” in English and include the following:

• Le (masculine)

• La (feminine)

• Les (plural)

Both le and la must change to l’ before a singular noun that begins with a vowel or vowel sound.

LES ARTICLES INDÉFINIS

Indefinite articles translate to “a/an” or “one” in English and include the following:

• Un (masculine)

• Une (feminine)

• Des (plural – “some”)

There is no need to change any of these articles if they come before a noun that begins with a vowel or vowel sound.

LES ARTICLES PARTITIFS (PARTITIVE ARTICLES)

A partitive article expresses “some” and refers to a portion of an uncountable noun. There are four partitive articles in French:

• Du (masculine singular)

• De la (feminine singular)

• De l’ (singular before vowel or vowel sound)

• Des (plural)

du gâteau	de la pizza
de la crème	des ordures
de l’argent	des gens
du beurre	des pommes de terre

LES EXPRESSIONS DE QUANTITÉ (EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY)

When a noun becomes countable via an expression of quantity, the partitive articles du, de la, de l’, des change to de/d’, regardless of their gender or whether they are singular or plural.

du gâteau	une part de gâteau
de la crème	une tasse de crème
de l’argent	beaucoup d’argent
du beurre	un kilo de beurre