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Learn French Fluently - The Definitive Article "the"

Here's a reminder to help you to learn French fluently about how the French noun is always preceded by the definitive article "the".

In French, the short specific word before the noun is a fixed part of the noun. For instance, le musicien and la musicienne for musician.

In French, "the" is not just one word. Instead there are a total of 4 versions of "the", depending on the gender and quantity of the noun to which you are referring.

The French word for the if followed by a masculine noun, is Le. If followed by a feminine noun, it is La, and when followed by any noun in the plural, it is Les. For example, if there is one (male) dog, we say Le chien. If there are two or more dogs, we say Les chiens. If there is one woman, we say La femme. If there are two or more women, we say Les femmes.

The + masculine noun = le [example: le train]

The + feminine noun = la [example: la neige]

The + any noun beginning with a vowel = l' [example: l'homme, l'escalier, l'oreille, l'ange]

NOTE: The apostrophe falls in between the article and the noun. This is because two vowel sounds in French cannot follow from one word to another.

The + any plural noun = les [ example: 2 or more dogs = les chiens] See Below:

Le Chien

Les Chiens









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