Articles and Gender — Lesson A1

The Big Difference: Grammatical Gender

English has no grammatical gender. French does — every noun is either masculine or feminine, and the article (the/a) must match. This affects articles, adjectives, and pronouns throughout French.

English	Masculine	Feminine
the	le livre (the book)	la table (the table)
a / an	un café (a coffee)	une maison (a house)
the (plural)	les livres / les tables

Definite Articles: le, la, l', les

Use le before masculine nouns, la before feminine nouns, l' before any noun starting with a vowel or silent h, and les for all plural nouns.

le garçon (the boy) — masc.
la fille (the girl) — fem.
l'ami (the friend, m.) / l'amie (the friend, f.) — vowel rule
l'homme (the man) — silent h counts as a vowel
les garçons / les filles — plural (no gender distinction)

Indefinite Articles: un, une, des

English uses a/an for singular indefinite nouns and nothing (or some) for plural. French uses un (masc.), une (fem.), and des (plural).

un chat — a cat (masc.)
une fleur — a flower (fem.)
des chats — (some) cats
des fleurs — (some) flowers

Note: des often translates as nothing in English: des pommes = "apples" (not "some apples").

How to Know the Gender

Gender must be learned with each noun. But some endings are reliable clues:

Usually Masculine	Usually Feminine
-age (le village)	-tion (la nation)
-ment (le gouvernement)	-té (la liberté)
-eau (le gâteau)	-ure (la voiture)
-isme (le tourisme)	-eur (la couleur — mostly)

Tip: Always learn nouns with their article: not chat but le chat.

Contracted Articles: au, du, aux, des

de + le and à + le always contract. de la and à la do NOT contract.

à + le → au: Je vais au cinéma (I'm going to the cinema)
à + les → aux: Je parle aux étudiants (I speak to the students)
de + le → du: le livre du professeur (the teacher's book)
de + les → des: le livre des enfants (the children's book)
No contraction: à la gare, de la ville, à l'hôtel

Common Mistakes

Avoid	Use	Why
le problem	le problème	Borrowed words keep their French gender. Problème is masculine.
un/une with professions	Il est médecin (no article)	After être with professions, drop the article: Elle est professeure, not une professeure.
la people	les gens	Gens (people) is always plural. Never use la people.
le/la + vowel	l'ami, l'école	Before a vowel or silent h, both le and la become l'. You can't tell gender from l' alone — must memorise.

Summary

Point	Form	Example
Definite masc.	le + noun	le livre (the book)
Definite fem.	la + noun	la table (the table)
Definite (vowel)	l' + noun	l'ami (the friend)
Definite plural	les + noun	les livres (the books)
Indefinite masc.	un + noun	un chat (a cat)
Indefinite fem.	une + noun	une maison (a house)
Indefinite plural	des + noun	des chats (cats)
Contraction à+le	au	Je vais au cinéma

Articles and Gender — Les Articles et le Genre