When you start to learn French grammar, you will discover that there are many rules, and unfortunately, almost as many exceptions to these rules. Although this is not the most glamorous aspect of learning the language of romance, if you need to learn how to speak French, it is also necessary to learn French grammar. A good way to start is to learn about articles before moving on to more complex grammar rules.
When you learn French grammar you will find out that nouns are either masculine or feminine, and there is also a plural form. Let us start with definite articles, where when the English only have one way of saying the, the French have four:
le is for a masculine noun starting with a consonant: for example le camion (the lorry);
la is for a feminine noun starting with a consonant: for example la voiture (the car);
l’ is for a noun of any genre starting with a vowel: for example l’orange (the orange);
les is for a plural noun of any genre: for example les pommes (the apples).
This may seem simple enough but when you learn French grammar in a little more detail, you will find a few more rules that are specific to the use of definite articles with country names, price, speed, frequency, prepositions, etc. that would not fit in this short article.
Once you are comfortable enough with the above, you can move on to indefinite articles, the French equivalent of a and an: This is a little easier as there are just three and all you need to worry about is the genre and number of the nouns:
Un is used in front of a masculine singular noun: for example un homme (a man);
Une is used in front of a feminine singular noun: for example une femme (a woman);
Des is used in front of plural nouns. This is a bit tricky because this article is not always used in the English language: for example des gens (people/ some people).
I could go on writing about partitive articles and possessive articles but the aim of the article is to introduce you to the basics of French grammar and not to give you a detailed grammatical lesson. More details (as well as the beloved French exceptions to the rules) can be found in specialized books and if you really want to learn French grammar, you should start by buying a good grammar book.
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