The use of the definite article

Unit 4, Lesson 10

What is the definite article?

The definite article is the word

THE

You already know two of the definite articles in French!

The for a masculine noun leExamples:

le baladeur – the CD playerle livre – the bookle chien – the dog

le cahier – the notebook

You already know two of the definite articles in French!

The for a feminine noun is la

Examplesla raquette

la motola calculatrice

la voiture

What happens if the noun starts with a vowel sound?

The le or la becomes l’ in front of any vowel sound

Examplesl’ordinateur

l’affichel’hotel

WAIT!!!!

You know, I have more than one book and more than one notebook and morethan one pencil and more than onepen and more than one CD and more than one DVD….what do I do about that???

Calm yourself! There is a simple solution!

First thing: to make almost any noun in

French plural, add an S to the end of the word.

Second thing:

Change the LE or the LA to LES

Check this out!

le livre ------------- les livres

la guitare ------------- les guitares

l’appareil-photo --------- les appareil-photos

le sac ------------------ les sacs

Do I have to keep repeating the noun?No, you can replace the noun with a subject

pronoun, il or elle depending on the gender of the noun.

Où est l’ordinateur? Il est sur le bureau.Où est la radiocassette ? Elle est dans ma chambre ?

Masculine nouns are replaced by ilFeminine nouns are replaced by elle(We’ll work on plural nouns later…)

Besides saying “the”-----

There are 2 times the French use the definite article where we do not use it in English.

Compare the French and the English

• J’aime le français.

• Je préfère les maths

• Tu aimes le rap?

• Nous aimons les films en classe.

I like French.

I prefer math.

Do you like rap?

We like movies in class.

The rule:

Use the definite article (le, la, l’, les) when you are talking about nouns in a general sense, aka where we do not use a “the” in English.

(used a lot after aimer, préférer and adorer)

Why do the French do this?

Because every noun has to have some sort of article before it.

PS – We do not know all of these articles right now

2nd time to use the definite article:

Use le before a day of the week to say “On (day of the week)…” or “Every (day of the week)…?

Examples Le jeudi, je regarde Grey’s Anatomy.

On Thursdays, I watch Grey’s Anatomy.

Le dimanche, je regarde “Rock of Love”

Every Sunday, I watch Rock of Love.

Le vendredi, je dîne au restaurant.

On Fridays, I eat at a restaurant.