{"id":153,"date":"2009-11-27T11:06:02","date_gmt":"2009-11-27T15:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=150"},"modified":"2009-11-27T11:06:02","modified_gmt":"2009-11-27T15:06:02","slug":"french-grammar-definite-articles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/french-grammar-definite-articles\/","title":{"rendered":"French Grammar – Definite Articles"},"content":{"rendered":"

L’argent ne fait pas le bonheur.<\/em><\/strong> (Money doesn’t bring happiness) I came across this saying today and it led me to thinking about how articles and more specifically in this case, definite articles, can be tricky as they are not always used in the same ways in French and English.\u00a0 Just by comparing the French saying, you can see how definite articles are used in the French version, but not in the English version.\u00a0 Why, you may ask.\u00a0 Well, whereas in English the definite article (the) is used when referring to a specific person, place or thing and no article is used with plural or non-count nouns when referring to things in general, one of the uses for French definite articles is when the noun is used in general in this same way.\u00a0 So, let’s take a look.<\/p>\n

First of all the three forms of definite articles in French are:
\nMasculine singular – le<\/em><\/strong>
\nFeminine singular – la
\n<\/em><\/strong>Masculine and feminine plural – les<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are also two other issues to keep in mind as far as formation:
\n1. You use l’<\/em> before a vowel or silent h<\/strong> (l’arbre, l’homme, l’universit\u00e9, l’heure<\/em>)
\n2. You contract the article with the prepositions \u00e0<\/em> and de<\/em><\/strong>:
\n\u00e0 + le = au (\u00e0 le cin\u00e9ma <\/span><\/em> au cin\u00e9ma)
\n\u00e0 + les = aux (\u00e0 les \u00c9tats-Unis<\/span><\/em> aux \u00c9tats-Unis)
\nde + le = du (de le salon <\/span><\/em> du salon)
\nde + les = des (de les tables<\/span><\/em> des tables)<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, you use the definite article in French in the following situations:
\n1. When the noun<\/strong> designates a person, place, or thing that is well-known or unique<\/strong>:
\nLe soleil <\/em>(the sun); la terre<\/em> (the Earth); la tour Eiffel <\/em>(the Eiffel Tower)<\/p>\n

2. When the noun refers to something in general<\/strong>:
\nl’argent<\/em> (money); le bonheur<\/em> (happiness); la musique <\/em>(music); les chiens <\/em>(dogs)<\/p>\n

3. When the noun is understood to be known due to a relative subordinate clause, a possessive phrase or the context<\/strong>:
\nLa<\/span><\/em> voiture que je voulais acheter a \u00e9t\u00e9 vendue.<\/em> The car I wanted to buy has been sold.\u00a0 (relative subordinate clause)
\nLe<\/span><\/em> chat de ma s\u0153ur s’est \u00e9chapp\u00e9.<\/em> My sister’s cat ran away. (possessive phrase)
\nNous sommes all\u00e9s \u00e0 l’anniversaire d’un ami. Le<\/span> g\u00e2teau \u00e9tait d\u00e9licieux. <\/em> We went to a friend’s birthday party.\u00a0 The cake was delicious.\u00a0 (context)<\/p>\n

You use a definite article before<\/strong>:
\n– place names<\/strong> (l’Europe, l’Ouest, la mer M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e, le Nil, les Alpes, etc.<\/em>)
\n**be careful: don’t put an article before Cuba, Isra\u00ebl, Madagascar, Chypre<\/em> and a few other countries.
\n– peoples and languages<\/strong> (les Italiens, l’italien, la Chine, le chinois, etc.<\/em>)
\n– seasons, the date and holidays<\/strong> (l’hiver, le 14 juillet, la f\u00eate nationale fran\u00e7aise<\/em>)
\n**be careful: don’t use an article with No\u00ebl<\/em> or P\u00e2ques <\/em>or before months and if you use one before a day of the week like lundi<\/em>, for example, it would mean every Monday)
\n– titles<\/strong> (le Pr\u00e9sident, le Premier ministre, le professeur Dupont, etc.<\/em>)
\n– last names <\/strong>when referring to the family (les Dupont, les Larverne, les Agassi, etc.)<\/em>
\n– colors<\/strong> (le vert, le blanc, le rouge, etc.<\/em>)
\n– superlatives<\/strong> (le plus beau, la plus belle, etc.<\/em>)
\n– to express measurements<\/strong> (10 euros le kilo, 5 euros le litre, 100 km \u00e0 l’heure, etc.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Also in French, you use definite articles before body parts instead of the possessive adjective<\/strong> when the relationship between the body part and the “owner” is obvious:
\nCette fille a les cheveux blonds et les yeux bleus.<\/em> (This girl has blonde hair and blue eyes.)
\nJ’ai mal \u00e0 la t\u00eate.<\/em> (My head hurts.)
\nOn conduit avec les mains sur le volant.<\/em> (You drive with your hands on the steering wheel.)<\/p>\n

Definite articles are also used when the possessive relationship is indicated with a reflexive verb<\/strong>:
\nLave-toi<\/span><\/em> les mains!<\/em> (Wash your hands!)
\nJe me suis coup\u00e9<\/span> les doigts!<\/em> (I cut my fingers!)<\/p>\n

And finally, you use definite articles when the “owner” is indicated by an indirect pronoun<\/strong>:
\nElle m<\/span>‘a pris le sac \u00e0 main.<\/em> (She took my purse.)
\nNous avons lui<\/span> fait les bagages. <\/em> (We packed her bags.)<\/p>\n

Qu’est-ce qui fait le bonheur pour vous?\u00a0 Partagez vos id\u00e9es avec nous dans une commentaire.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

L’argent ne fait pas le bonheur. (Money doesn’t bring happiness) I came across this saying today and it led me to thinking about how articles and more specifically in this case, definite articles, can be tricky as they are not always used in the same ways in French and English.\u00a0 Just by comparing the French…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[237,284,347,406],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-definite-articles-in-french","tag-free-french-lessons","tag-french-grammar-help","tag-french-sayings"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}