French articles and noun gender: the rules that stick

French articles are the small words before a noun that say which one, one of many, or how much: le, un, du. This page sorts the three kinds, shows how au and du are built, covers the l’ rule and its h trap, then gives the tools for telling whether a noun is masculine or feminine. For adjectives that agree with the noun, see Good in French. For more nouns to practise on, see Basic French words. For drills afterwards, try French grammar exercises.

What are articles in French?

Articles in the French language are words that introduce a noun and take its gender and number. The Québec language office (OQLF) now calls them déterminants: definite, indefinite and partitive [1]. The old names are article défini, article indéfini and article partitif [1].

The article is a receiver: it takes its gender and number from the noun [1]. That is why it is the first clue to a noun’s gender, as the last sections show.

How do le and les work in French?

Le goes before a masculine singular noun, la before a feminine singular noun, and les before a plural. The OQLF lists le/la/les as the definite set [1]. Its examples are “La fenêtre est ouverte” and “Les vitres sont propres” [1]. The gender of the article tells you the gender of the noun: the OQLF gives une hélice and un autobus [1].

When the noun starts with a vowel or a silent h, le and la lose their vowel and become l’. The OQLF’s examples are “L’aviateur a volé au début de l’hiver” and “L’harmonie règne depuis l’arrivée de l’illustre directrice” [2]. The apostrophe replaces the dropped vowel, and the OQLF says this is called elision [2]. The h has to be a silent one, as the next section shows.

Why is it la honte and not l’honte?

Some words begin with an h that blocks elision. The OQLF calls it the aspirated h: the letter makes no sound, but the word behaves as if it began with a consonant [3]. So you say la honte and not “l’honte” [3]. The same page gives “la hernie” and “ma hanche” [3].

Silent h words elide as normal. The OQLF’s l’hiver above is one [2].

The OQLF’s own list of frequent aspirated-h words includes hache, hamac, hanche, haricot, héros, hibou, homard, honte and huit [3]. It adds that you find out in a dictionary: Le Petit Robert and Usito mark it with an apostrophe in the phonetic transcription [3]. [[word-break]]

What are indefinite articles in French?

Un and une introduce one unspecific noun, and des introduces several. The OQLF’s examples are “J’ai vu un raton laveur” and “Achète des pommes vertes” [1]. Un is masculine and une is feminine; des is the plural.

Two rules change the form. After an adjective that comes before a plural noun, des becomes de or d’: “Comme tu as de jolis cheveux”, “Léo et Rosalie sont de bons amis” [4]. If the adjective and noun form a compound noun, des stays: des petits pois [4]. And after ne… pas, un, une and des reduce to de or d’: “Jean-Guy n’a pas trouvé d’avocat” [5].

What are the partitive articles?

The partitive article, du and de la, covers a quantity of something rather than a countable item. The OQLF’s examples are “Il y a encore du vent” and “Nous avons mangé des pâtes” [1]. The same OQLF page that gives the negation rule uses “du vin” and “de la farine” as partitives [5].

In a negative sentence with ne… pas or ne… plus, the partitive shrinks to de: “Il n’y a pas de farine dans cette recette”, not “pas de la farine” [5]. It keeps its full form when the negation is followed by a contrast: “Nicole ne boira pas du vin ce soir, mais de la bière” [5]. With ne… que, which limits instead of denying, the full form usually stays: “Nicole ne boira que du vin” [5].

What are au, aux and du in French?

Au, aux, du and des are contracted articles. The OQLF defines the contracted determiner as one word made of a preposition and a determiner: au is à + le, du is de + le, aux is à + les, and des is de + les [6]. Contraction is obligatory in almost all contexts [6].

The OQLF warns that some contracted forms look like other articles. Du in “l’odeur du café” is de + le. Du in “boire du café” is partitive [6]. Same spelling, different job. The feminine à la and de la are not on the OQLF’s list of contractions [6].

How do you tell the gender of French nouns?

Start with the article. The OQLF notes that the gender of the determiner, often visible, tells you the gender of the noun: une hélice, un autobus [1]. So learn every noun with its article, as in le livre and la table, and not alone.

Endings help a little. The OQLF says nouns ending in -ée are generally feminine: allée, année, armée, cheminée, dictée, fusée, idée [7]. But about thirty, often rare, are masculine, among them le musée, le lycée, mausolée, scarabée and trophée [7]. The reason is Latin: the final e is a trace of -um, so museum became musée [7].

Animals follow another pattern. The OQLF says many animal names have a fixed gender that covers both male and female, and you add mâle or femelle to be specific [8]. Others change with the sex, like chat and chatte [8]. Most names for young animals are masculine [8].

City names are looser. The OQLF says gender is “assez flottant”. The general tendency is feminine for names ending in a silent e or in -es, and masculine otherwise: Rome, Venise, Londres and Marseille are feminine; Montréal, Paris and Lyon are masculine [9]. The exceptions are numerous, and masculine is spreading [9]. When the name contains an article, the gender is plain: Le Caire, La Rochelle [9].

Some common nouns to hear with their article: le garçon, la fille, la femme, la pomme, le lait, la ville, le pays.

Common mistakes

• Saying “l’honte”. Honte begins with an aspirated h, so there is no elision: la honte [3].
• Keeping des after ne… pas. Un, une and des reduce to de or d’ in the negative: “pas de farine” [5].
• Keeping des before a preceding adjective. “De jolis cheveux”, not “des jolis cheveux” [4].
• Writing “à le” or “de le”. The contracted forms are au and du [6].
• Assuming every -ée noun is feminine. Musée and lycée are masculine [7].
• Learning the noun without its article. The article is the main clue to gender [1].
• Trusting a blog’s grammar rule as final, this one included. The language-office pages change. Check the date on each official page against the date at the top of this one.

See also: French prepositions.

See also: French plural.

Sources