French Nouns, Articles, and Accents – Today’s French

Les noms, les articles et les accents – Le français d’aujourd’hui

After having studied the alphabet and first French words, let’s move on to Week 6 of our French 1 course.

Let’s go over the basics of French nouns and articles and the mystery of French accents.

In this lesson, we’ll go over

1. The gender of nouns
2. LE, LA, LES, UN, UNE, DES
   • Definite articles
   • Indefinite articles
3. French accents

The Gender of Nouns

Is the word masculine or feminine?

The gender – knowing if a word is masculine or feminine – is not always logical. For instance, why do you say un livre (a book) and une livre (half a pound)?

Luckily, there are a few tricks you can hang onto to spot a gender. Learn about it in the premium lesson.

French Articles

THE has 4 translations in French: LE, LA, L’, LES. A/AN has 3 translations in French: UN, UNE, DES.

French words have a gender.  For instance, a cheese is masculine and a baguette is feminine. The gender shows up in the article, but also in the adjective, so it’s important to know them:

• the fresh baguette and the fresh cheese –> la baguette fraîche et le fromage frais

Sometimes, the gender is obvious (a man, a woman); sometimes, there is no logic to it. Therefore, it is necessary to memorize the gender with every new noun you are learning.

Exercice sur les articles définis

Fill in the blanks with LE, LA, UN or UNE. Review the gender of the noun on the first lesson “French Alphabet”. The answers are in the last column.

Accents on French letters

Les accents en français : é, è, ê, ç et autres œ

The French alphabet has 26 letters, just like in English.

However, some letters have accents.

Accents in French serve two main purposes:

1. to modify the sound of a word
2. to distinguish the meaning of two words that would otherwise be spelled the same way

Most common accents

1. Accent aigu (acute), accent grave (grave), and accent circonflexe (circumflex)

Practice

Fill in the blanks with one of the two words provided.

_______ (La, Là) fête était _______ (a, à) Loguivy-_______(les, lès)-Lannion, _______ (ou, où) les grands-parents avaient la maison familiale. _______ (Les, Lès) fêtes se faisaient toujours _______ (la, là).

Get the answers and continue this lesson when you sign up with this course

There are more accents. See the premium lesson here.

Ensuite – Next

Free quiz in the Homophones Course

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