Beginner French – Definite, Indefinite and Partitive Articles

An article is an important part of a language; it allows us to determine if we are talking about a noun in a specific, unspecific or partial way.

It sounds a lot more confusing than it really is.

In French there are a few rules around this and it might seem a little overwhelming at first. Just take your time and try and think things through. You will start to get use to it no time and realise it is pretty straight forward.

Definite And Indefinites In English

We will start with these two articles as they are fairly straight forward.

In English, if you want to refer to a noun you can use ‘The, A or An’.

We don’t need go into when you need to use A or An, this isn’t an English lesson, but you get the idea of when they are used.

If you want to talk about a specific thing, you say “The”

If you want to talk about something less specific or just one of something in general, you use “A/An”

“The book” and “A book” may sound very similar, but the differences are clear.

“The book” is when you would be referring to one specific book; “A book” could be any book in the library.

Definite And Indefinites In French

French is similar in that there are different words for ‘The’ and ‘A’

However, like most things they have multiple words for each depending on the gender or if there is plurals of the item.

Definite Articles In French

In French there are 4 ways you can say ‘THE’.

You just put the right article in front of the word so that it matches its gender (or if it is a plural).

• Le – Masculine words
• La – Feminine words
• Les – Plurals
• L’ – Feminine words beginning with a vowel or H

Using The Definitive With à

As always there are exceptions. When you are using a definitive with à it will change what you have to do.

The French word à can mean “to” and “at”

If you are saying “to the” or “at the” the definitive article changes to the following:

• à + le = Au
• à + La = à la
• à + Les = aux
• à + L’ =  à L’

You might have already noticed some of these when you have been reading, or even made this mistake yourself and wondered why it was wrong.

Basically you will see this simple rule all the time when talking about places.

This is why “je vais à le cinema” is not right! No one ever told me this rule, so I couldn’t work out why it suddenly became “je vais au cinema” which is the correct way to say this.

Using The Definitive With De

Using the definitive with ‘de’ also has its own set of rules that you must follow to change the definitive article.

‘De’ means both ‘of’ and ‘from’

If you are trying to say “of the” or “from the” you will need to use the following:

• De + le = Du
• De + La = De la
• De + Les = Des
• De + L’ = De l’

You are most likely to see this when you  are talking about “coming from” for example “ I come from japan” – “Je viens du japon”.

It’s another easy rule you will probably spot all the time, but can easily trip you up.

Indefinite Articles In French

There are 3 ways to say “A/AN” in French. You just put the right article in front of the word so that it matches its gender (or if it is a plural)

• Un – masculine words
• Une – feminine words
• Des – plural

Some of you are probably thinking. “You wouldn’t put ‘A’ before a plural in English” and you would be correct.

“A books” is not right. We would probably use the word ‘Some’ – “some books”. It still is quite unspecific. All we know is that there are a number of books. We are not sure of how many or what exact books.

This is where the lines become a little blurred as ‘Des’ means ‘some’, but it can be classed as a indefinite article or it can be classed as our next topic, a Partitive Articles.

Negation of Indefinite Articles In French

When you are using an indefinite article in a negative sentence ‘un, une and des’ all become ‘de’  

It doesn’t matter the gender or if it’s plural, it all becomes ‘de’.

I have a car  – J’ai une voiture

I do not have a car – Je n’ai pas de voiture

As you can see, voiture is a female word and uses ‘Une’, but when the sentence become negative, it changes to ‘de’.

Even if it was the plural ‘Des voitures’, it would still need to change to ‘De’

The only exception to this exception would be if the word begins with a vowel or H. It would simply become D’

For example “I do not have an orange – je n’ai pas d’orange”

Partitive Articles In French

This article allows us to determine that we are talking about a portion of something, or an uncountable amount. The English equivalent would be “some”.

It is very commonly used when talking about food and drink.

There are 4 variations in French depending on the gender or if the object is plural.

Initially this may seem strange. How can you have “some” of a singular item? This is where the “portion of something” comes into play, especially when we are considering food.   

If you can count the objects you would probably just say the number of items “2 sausages” so you wouldn’t need a partitive article, you just say the number.

If we look at peas, you would ask for “some peas” you would never say, “give me exactly 38 peas” it’s fine to just ask for “some” and you would never try and count them. Using “some” here makes sense as the peas are plural and there is an undefined amount, so it works.

So what about the single item? This is where you would have block of butter, which is a single item. You would then ask for “some butter” basically you are talking about a small portion of this block.

The same would work for “some milk”. You are asking for a potion of the milk to be given to you. It’s still counted as singular. You wouldn’t say “some milks”.

This is how you can have singular and plurals of items. It works the exact same in French, the only difference is that the singular items need to be split up by their genders (or if they begin with a vowel or H)

• Du – masculine words
• De La – feminine words
• De l’ – Words that start with a vowel or H           
• Des – plurals

Those with the sharp eye will notice these are the exact same as the definitive with ‘De’ that I talked about above.

So these can both mean “some” and “of the” or “from the” this is very confusing at first, but once you start seeing it in context it will make more sense.

If you take “je veux du lait” and translate it slightly wrong, it is going to be obvious. “I want of the milk” and “I want from the milk” obviously make no sense. It clear that is must mean “I want some milk”

This might take a little bit of extra time to sit and work out this out every time, but eventually you will get faster at understanding what the definition is from the context in the sentence. So long as you know these can have a few different meanings, you can take your time to work it out. 

You Always Need An Article In French

It is very important to note that in French is you are talking about any noun, it will need an article. If you are being specific you will of course use a definitive (or use a number) “the cake, three cakes”

However, if you are being unspecific you will also always need an article.

In English we can quite happily say “I eat cake”   This doesn’t work in French.

You need an article, always!

To say “Je mange gateau” is wrong. You have to make sure there is an article before the noun (cake).

So you basically you always have to say “I eat SOME cake” – “Je mange de gateau”

The next time you are reading anything in French, try and look at this. Notice how every noun has an article before it. 

Conclusion

As you can see articles are quite straight forward, but as always there are lots of little exceptions that can make things seem overwhelming.

This is only a small part of the language, but it still important as you will use it a lot when you are speaking French.

Just try and learn these rules and constantly notice them in anything you are reading or listening to. Just keep working on it and soon you will be able to deal with any combination without any trouble or confusion.  

(Read the next lesson – Making Words Plural In French)