Zero Articles in French

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Hey, today we’ll be talking about zero articles in French. What is a zero article? It’s an article that is omitted. Just like in English, in French we sometimes omit the article. When is it the case? Here are the most common scenarios.

After combien de, beaucoup de, peu de, etc.

To start with, we don’t use articles after other determiners like combien de, beaucoup de, peu de. Have a look:

Combien ~~des~~ chats?	→	Combien de chats?	How many cats?
beaucoup de l’eau	→	beaucoup d’eau	much water
beaucoup ~~des~~ pommes	→	beaucoup de pommes	many apples
peu de l’argent	→	peu d’argent	little money
peu ~~des~~ touristes	→	peu de touristes	few tourists

With Jobs

Unlike in English, we omit the article before the names of jobs:

Pierre est un professeur.	→	Pierre est professeur.	Pierre is a teacher.
Elle est ~~une~~ actrice.	→	Elle est actrice.	She´s an actress.
Je suis un boulanger.	→	Je suis boulanger.	I´m a baker.
Tu es un boucher.	→	Tu es boucher.	You´re a butcher.

With Nationalities

There´s no article before nationalities, either. Actually, nationalities are adjectives, so they must agree in gender and number with the noun. Have a look:

Je suis ~~une~~ espagnole.	→	Je suis espagnole.	I´m Spanish. (female)
Il est un polonais.	→	Il est polonais.	He´s Polish.
Elle est ~~une~~ chinoise.	→	Elle est chinoise.	She´s Chinese.
Ils sont ~~des~~ allemands.	→	Ils sont allemands.	They are German.

With Religions, Political Groups

We do not use articles before religions and political groups:

Je suis un catholique.	→	Je suis catholique.	I´m a Catholic.
Elle est ~~une~~ chrétienne.	→	Elle est chrétienne.	She´s a Christian.
Tu es un musulman.	→	Tu es musulman.	You’re a Muslim.
Il est un communiste.	→	Il est communiste.	He´s a communist.

Modified Names

In all the cases described above we do use an article if the name is modified in any way, usually by an adjective:

Sophie est actrice.	Sophie is an actress.
Sophie est une bonne actrice.	Sophie is a good actress.

Michel est chrétien.	Michel is a Chistian.
Michel est un jeune chrétien.	Michel is a young Chistian.