Mastering the Basics of French Nouns, Articles, and Plurals

In this post we’ll look at French nouns, articles, and plurals. First, we’ll look at some basic concepts that you need to keep in mind about nouns in French. After that we’ll learn about articles, first definite, and then indefinite. Then we’ll see the partitive. Next we’ll take a look at gender in French. After that we’ll turn to plurals.

Noun Basics

Nouns are the words that refer to people, places, things, ideas. All nouns in French are either masculine or feminine. Definite (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) change depending on the gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) of the noun. Both le and la become l’ before nouns beginning with a vowel or silent h. The preposition de (of) + the definite article is used to mean some.

Definite Articles

First, let’s look at definite articles, equivalent to English the.

• Le film est bon, mais le livre est meilleur.
  The film is good but the book is better.
• La maison est juste là, à la droite.
  The house is right there, to the right.
• L’école n’est pas loin de la gare.
  The school isn’t far from the train station.

Indefinite Articles

Now let’s turn to indefinite articles, equivalent to a or an.

• As-tu un billet ?
  Do you have a ticket?
• Ma copine a une nouvelle voiture.
  My girlfriend has a new car.

Partitive

The partitive is some or any in English. It’s formed with the preposition de in French; remember that de + le = du and de + les = des.

• Donne-moi du sucre.
  Give me some sugar.
• J’ai des amis qui habitent pas loin d’ici.
  I have (some) friends who live not far from here.
• Elle m’a donné de l’argent.
  She gave me some money.

You can go into more depth on the French partitive in this post.

No Naked Nouns

French nouns almost always come with an article, partitive, possessive, or something else. Bare nouns (water, students, gold) are fine in English, but not in French with very few exceptions. So you’ll use le, la, l’, les, du, de la, de l’, and des in French in places where you wouldn’t use the or some in English.

• Je bois de l’eau.  (NOT: Je bois eau.)
  I’m drinking water. I’m drinking some water.
• Je mange de la salade. (NOT: Je mange salade.)
  I’m eating salad.
• As-tu de l’argent ? (NOT: As-tu argent ?)
  Do you have money?
• Elle aime la musique coréenne.  (NOT: Elle aime musique coréenne.)
  She likes Korean music.

Gender

Nouns referring to people or animals will follow biological gender.

Otherwise, the gender of nouns must be memorized. There are some patterns that can help. Generally, nouns ending in consonants or vowels other than –e are masculine. The endings –age and –ment are also typically masculine. Nouns ending in –e are often feminine, although there are plenty of exceptions. Other typically feminine endings are –tion, –son, and –té.

Plurals

To form plurals, most nouns simply add –s.

Singular nouns that end in –s or –x don’t change in the plural, and singulars that end in –au or –eu take an –x instead of an –s. Nouns that end in –al or –ail in the singular end in –aux in the plural.

A few nouns have irregular plurals

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