Hey, today we´ll be talking about the singular forms of the definite article in French. So, there are only two genders in French, masculine gender and feminine gender.
Forms of the Definite Article
The forms of the definite article are:
| LE | – used before masculine nouns starting with a consonant |
| LA | – used before feminine nouns starting with a consonant |
| L’ | – used before masculine and feminine nouns starting with a vowel or silent H |
Let’s now have a look at them in more detail.
Nouns Starting with a Consonant
First, nouns starting with a consonant, both masculine and feminine gender. In the former case we use the article LE, in the latter LA:
| masculine gender | feminine gender | ||
| le père | father | la mère | mother |
| le frère | brother | la sœur | sister |
| le chat | (male) cat | la chatte | female cat |
| le crayon | pencil | la chaise | chair |
Nouns Starting with a Vowel
If the noun starts with a vowel, we use elision, so the final consonant in either article is dropped. Then we add an apostrophe:
| masculine gender | feminine gender | ||
| l‘ouvrier | male worker | l‘ouvrière | female worker |
| l‘arbre | tree | l‘usine | factory |
| l‘ami | male friend | l‘amie | female friend |
| l‘intérêt | interest | l‘épée | sword |
Nouns Starting with H
We must be particularly careful if the noun starts with the letter H. As you know, there are two types of H in French, silent H and aspirated H. You don’t pronounce either, but, depending on which one the noun starts with, you use or you don’t use elision:
| silent H | aspirated H | |||
| l‘homme | man | (masculine) | le héros | hero |
| l‘héroïne | heroine | (feminine) | la hâte | haste, hurry |
| l‘hiver | winter | (masculine) | le haricot | bean |
| l‘habitude | habit | (feminine) | la honte | shame, disgrace |
The nouns le héros and l‘héroïne are very interesting. The masculine form starts with an aspirated H, whereas the feminine form starts with a silent one.
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