1 - Articles + Liason Rule

Definite and indefinite articles

In french, unlike english and spanish, a noun must frequently be paired with either a definite article, or an indefinite article.

• definite articles: The definite article is the equivalent of “the” in english
• indefinite article: The indefinite article is the equivalent of “a” in english, and includes partitive articles, which is french-specific.

Just like in spanish, articles for both the definite and indefinite articles are gendered and change based on plurality:

Here are the 3 definite articles, which all mean “the”

• Le: singular masculine
• La: singular feminine
• Les: plural masculine and feminine

important

You must pronounce les differently than le, you really need to emphasize the strong "e" in "les". And when a liason rule is applied (the word directly succeeding "les" starts with a vowel), you must pronounce the "s."

Then here are the three indefinite articles:

• Des: plural, equivalent of “some”, but look more at the partitive articles section.
• Un: singular masculine
• Une: singular feminine

Using definite articles in sentences

Nationalities

When referring to a country, it is always paired with its definite article.

• La France: France ends in an "e", therefore it is a feminine country.
• Les Etats-Unis: United States is plural.
• Le Japon: Japan ends in a consonant, therefore it is a masculine country.

Days of the week

Including the definite article when talking about a day of the week changes it to mean something like "each monday" or "every monday", whereas without it, it means "next monday" or a specific monday.

• Je travaille le lundi: I work on mondays
• Je travaille lundi: I work monday (next monday)

Reflexive

Just like in spanish, when doing actions to one's body parts, you will use reflexive verbs, and thus refer to body parts through their definite articles and not with possessive adjectives.

• Je me lave les mains: I wash my hands
• Je me lave les dents: I brush my teeth
• Je me lave le visage: I wash my face
• Je me lave les cheveux: I wash my hair

Liason rule

The most important rule in french is the liason rule. It is a rule that states that when a word starts with a vowel, You pronounce those two words differently. One of two things can happen:

1. The spelling does not change, but you must pronounce the last letter of the preceding word as to emphasize the vowel in the next word.
2. The spelling changes to a contraction, and you must pronounce the contraction.

scenario 1

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for example for “nous allons,” you still have to pronounce the last letter of any word that directly precedes a word starting with a vowel. In this case, the liason rule is just a pronunciation rule, but it is a prominent one.

scenario 2

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In these 4 cases, the spelling changes to a contraction, and you must pronounce the contraction.

1. The preceding word is the definite article "la" or "le". Note that "les" DOES NOT have the contraction, it only has the liason pronunciation.
2. The preceding word is an object pronoun like me, te, le, or la, and the succeeding word is a verb or infinitive starting with a vowel. The other ones only get the pronunciation rule.
3. The preceding word is the 1st person pronoun "je". This is the only pronoun that has the liason contraction rule.
4. The preceding word is the negation article "ne", which contracts with a verb to form "n'".

Here is a table of examples:

Incorrect	Correct
La orange ❌	L’orange ✅
De la orange ❌	De l’orange ✅
Te attendre ❌	T’attendre ✅
Je ai ❌	J’ai ✅
Me aime ❌	M'aime ✅
Je ne aime pas❌	J n'aime pas ✅

Liason practice

Pronounce these sentences, which all have liasons:

• Je veux les inviter à la fête.
• Je veux manger des oranges.
• Je peux t'aider.
• Je ne peux pas t'aider.
• Je peux les attendre.

Partitive articles

Partitive articles are used to indicate a specific quantity of something. They are used in the same way as the indefinite articles, but they are more specific.

• Des: plural, equivalent of “some”
• De: plural, equivalent of “some”

The partitive article is the equivalent of “some”, and has different forms depending on gender and plurality. It is based off of the preposition “de”, which translates to “of”.

Je voudrais des oeufs, du lait et de la salade.

French	When to use
des	masculine or feminine plural object, contraction of de les
du	masculine singular object, contraction of de le
de la	feminine singular object
de l’	singular object that starts with vowel
de	Used in negatives or in front of proper nouns.

We have two contraction rules here:

• de + le → du: We contract “de le” to “du” for singular masculine nouns, as it sounds less awkward
• de + les → des: We contract “de les” to “des” for singular masculine nouns, as it sounds less awkward

tip

When pronouncing “des”, the liason rule kicks in: the s is silent except for when the object starts with a vowel, like “des oranges”

Here are some examples:

• Des livres (Some books/books). This refers to multiple books, but not specific ones.
• Des tables (Some tables/tables). This refers to multiple tables, but not specific ones.

de after negation

When using a negative sentence, the indefinite articles un, une, and des usually change to de (or d' before a vowel sound).

important

This only occurs when the negation changes the existence of something, otherwise this rule doesn't apply. For example, Je n'ai pas de frère. is correct because negating the sentence changes the existence of the brother.

• Example: J'ai un frère. (I have a brother.)
  • Je n'ai pas de frère. (I don't have a brother.)
• Example: Elle a une voiture. (She has a car.)
  • Elle n'a pas de voiture. (She doesn't have a car.)
• Example: Ils ont des enfants. (They have children.)
  • Ils n'ont pas d'enfants. (They don't have children.)

When a sentence is negative, using “ne … pas” somewhere in it, then all of the endings when using the partitive article just get truncated to “de”, like so:

• I want some milk = Je veux du lait
• I don't want any milk = Je ne veux pas de lait

summary

In summary, here are the rules for using articles with negation:

1. If using an indefinite article, we truncate to the partitive article "de" instead if talking about negating the existence of something
2. If using a partitive article, we truncate to the partitive article "de" no matter what, when using negation in a sentence.

Practice Exercises

Test your knowledge of articles with these exercises: