French articles and determiners

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In French, articles and determiners are required on almost every common noun, much more so than in English. They are inflected to agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they determine, though most have only one plural form (for masculine and feminine). Many also often change form when the word that follows them begins with a vowel sound.

While articles are actually a subclass of determiners (and determiners are in turn a subclass of adjectives) they are generally treated separately; thus, they are treated separately here as well.

Contents 1 Articles 1.1 The definite article 1.2 The indefinite article 1.3 The partitive article 2 Determiners 2.1 Possessive determiners 2.2 Demonstrative determiners 2.3 Interrogative determiners 2.4 Quantifiers

Articles

French has three articles: a definite article, corresponding in many cases to English the; an indefinite article, corresponding to English a/an; and a partitive article, used roughly like some in English .

The definite article

The French definite article is analogous to the English definite article the. Like the, the French definite article is used with a noun referring to a specific item when both the speaker and the audience know what the item is; so, « J'ai cassé la chaise rouge » ("I broke the red chair"). Unlike the, the French definite article is also used with mass nouns and plural nouns with generic interpretation, and with abstract nouns. For example:

• « J'aime le lait. » ("I like milk.")
• « J'aime les romans. » ("I like novels.")
• « Le capitalisme a transformé ce pays. » ("Capitalism has transformed this country.")

The definite article takes the following forms:

	singular		plural
	before consonant	before vowel or mute h1
masculine	le2	l'	les2
feminine	la

1. See Elision (French).
2. The prepositions à (to, at) and de (of, from) contract with the forms le and les to form au, du, aux, and des, respectively.

The indefinite article

The French indefinite article is analogous to the English indefinite article a/an. Like a/an, the French indefinite article is used with a noun referring to a non-specific item, or to a specific item when the speaker and audience do not both know what the item is; so, « J'ai cassé une chaise rouge » ("I broke a red chair"). Unlike a/an, the French indefinite article has a plural form, often translated as some but usually simply omitted in English; so, « Il y a des livres là-bas » ("There are some books over there." or "There are books over there").

The indefinite article takes the following forms:

	singular	plural
masculine	un	des
feminine	une

1. The indefinite article becomes de (or d' if before a vowel) after a negative verb other than être: « Je n'ai pas de livre », "I do not have a or any book." This use is related to expressions of quantity; see below.
2. The plural form des is normally reduced to de (or d' if before a vowel) when it applies to a noun preceded by an adjective: « de nombreux livres » (many books), « d'autres livres » (other books) but « des livres reliés » (bound books).
3. Unlike in English the article is dropped when specifying someone's occupation: « ma soeur est avocat. » "My sister is a lawyer."

The partitive article

The French partitive article is often translated as some, but often simply omitted in English. It is used to indicate an indefinite portion of something uncountable, or an indefinite number of something countable: « J'ai du café » ("I have some coffee." or simply "I have coffee.").

The partitive article takes the following forms:

	singular		plural
	before consonant	before vowel or mute h1
masculine	du	de l'	des
feminine	de la

1. See Elision (French).
2. Like the indefinite article, the partitive article becomes de (or d' if before a vowel) after a negative verb other than être and before a plural noun preceded by an adjective.

Notice that except after a negative verb, the partitive article is formed by combining the preposition de (of, from) with the definite article. Also note that in the plural, and after a negative verb, the indefinite and partitive articles take the same form; this makes sense, as there is no clear difference in meaning in these cases. (Some grammarians actually classify des as either exclusively indefinite or exclusively partitive, and say that the other article has no plural form. This does not affect the interpreted meaning of des.)

Determiners

Determiners, like other adjectives, agree in gender and number with the noun they modify (or, in this case, determine).

Possessive determiners

The possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives or, misleadingly, possessive pronouns; analogous to English my, their, etc.) are used to indicate the possessor of the noun they determine. They lexically mark the person and number of the possessor, and are inflected to agree with their noun in gender and number. While English distinguishes between masculine and feminine singular possessors (his vs. her), French does not. As in English, possessive determiners do not necessarily express true possession in the sense of ownership.

Their forms are as follows:

			possessed
			singular	plural
possessor	first person	singular	mon, ma1	mes
		plural	notre	nos
	second person	singular	ton, ta1	tes
		plural	votre	vos
	third person	singular	son, sa1	ses
		plural	leur	leurs

1. The forms mon, ton, and son are used with masculine nouns, or before vowels or mute h's; the forms ma, ta, and sa are used before consonants with feminine nouns.

Demonstrative determiners

	singular	plural
masculine	ce cet (before vowel and mute h)	ces
feminine	cette

The demonstrative determiners (or demonstrative adjectives) can mean either this or that, these or those. To be more precise or to avoid ambiguity, -ci or -là can be inserted after the noun:

• cet homme-ci "this man"
• cet homme-là "that man"

Interrogative determiners

The interrogative determiner quel means which or what. It agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies:

	singular	plural
masculine	quel	quels
feminine	quelle	quelles

Examples: quel train, quelle chaise, quels hommes, and quelles classes.

Quel can be used as an exclamation.

• « Quel film ! » (What a movie!)
• « Quelle gentillesse ! » (What kindness!)

Quantifiers

A quantifier is a determiner that quantifies its noun, like English "some" and "many." In French, as in English, quantifiers constitute an open word class, unlike most other kinds of determiners. In French, most quantifiers are formed using a noun or adverb of quantity and the preposition de (d' when before a vowel).

Quantifiers formed with a noun of quantity and the preposition de include the following:

• des tas de ("lots of")
• trois kilogrammes de ("three kilograms of")
• une bouchée de ("a mouthful of")
• une douzaine de ("a dozen (of)")

Quantifiers formed with an adverb of quantity and the preposition de include the following:

• beaucoup de ("a lot of")
• un peu de ("a little," "a few")
• peu de ("little," "few")
• assez de, suffisamment de ("enough of")
• pas de ("no," "not any")

Other quantifiers include:

• bien + the partitive article ("much" or "many")
• quelque(s) ("some")
• the cardinal numbers (73, 4.2, and so on)