Les articles indéfinis / Indefinites articles
The English indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ correspond to the French ‘un’ (masculine, e.g. un café) or ‘une’ (feminine, e.g. une maison).
In French, the indefinite article fulfils the following two main roles.
1 Numerical (same as in English)
| Français | Anglais |
| Il y a eu un incendie. | There was a fire. |
2 General (same as in English)
| Français | Anglais |
| Une banque poursuit divers objectifs. | A bank pursues various objectives. |
One of the main differences in use concerns the job titles and professions:
| Français | Anglais |
| Il est médecin. | He is a doctor. |
| BUT Ils sont ouvriers. | They are workers. |
Also, in French, you will need to include the indefinite article ‘DES’, where English uses the ZERO article.
| Français | Anglais |
| On a fait DES erreurs. | Mistakes have been made. |
In other cases, the use of indefinite articles is nearly always equivalent in both languages.
| Français | Anglais |
| Est-ce que tu as un stylo ? | Do you have a pen? |
| Elle a acheté une maison. | She has bought a house. |
Les articles définis / Definite articles
The English definite article ‘the’ corresponds to the French triade ‘le’ (masculine), ‘la’ (feminine) and ‘les’ (both masculine and feminine, plural). If the article comes before a noun starting with a vowel, its
form changes into l‘, which is used for both genders (e.g. l’article, l‘image).
In French, however, the definite articles often merge with the preceding prepositions ‘à’ and ‘de’. Thus, there are further four forms that frequently appear in French (au, aux, du, des).
| Preposition | Français | Anglais |
| À + LE : | Il s’intéresse au marché indien | He is interested in Indian market. |
| (À + LA/L’ – no changes) | Elle pense à l’avenir | She is thinking about the future. |
| À + LES | Ils vont aux Philippines | They are going to the Philippines. |
| DE + LE | Tu parles du contrat? | Are you speaking about the contract? |
| (DE + LA/L’ – no changes) | Ils discutent de l’allocation. | They are discussing the allowance. |
| DE + LES | On débat des conditions de la vente | We discuss the conditions of the sale. |
1 Specific things & generic
In French, definite articles denote both specific and general objects. In English, however, the definite articles are commonly used only in the first case (specific items):
| Français | Anglais |
| Le livre est sur la table. | The book is on the table. |
| J’aime la musique. | I like music. (BUT ALSO: I like the music (=the music they are playing right now) |
| L’argent est important pour moi. | Money is important to me. |
2 Plural
Unlike in French, English does not use the definite article in cases of generic use.
| Français | Anglais |
| Les femmes ont les mêmes droits que les hommes. | Women have the same rights as men. |
If the article denotes specific items (animate or inanimate), both languages use the definite article.
| Français | Anglais |
| Tu connais les nouveaux clients ? | Do you know the new clients? |
3 Countries
In French, most European countries are in feminine form. In English, no article is used, even if the corresponding French noun is masculine.
| Français | Anglais |
| La France | France |
| L’Italie | Italy |
| La Grèce | Greece |
| Le Portugal | Portugal |
| Le Danemark | Denmark |
Non-European countries follow the same rule:
| Français | Anglais |
| Le Canada | Canada |
| L’Afghanistan | Afghanistan |
| La Chine | China |
| Le Japon | Japan |
If the noun consists of two parts, or if it is in plural, then articles are used even in English.
| Français | Anglais |
| La République tchèque | the Czech Republic |
| Les Pays-Bas | the Netherlands |
| Les États-Unis | the United States |
| Les Philippines | the Philippines |
4 Physical appearance
Unlike in French, there is usually no article in English when body parts are concerned.
| Français | Anglais |
| C’est une femme avec des yeux bleus. | It is a woman with blue eyes. (She has blue eyes.) |
| C’est un enfant avec les cheveux roux. | It is a child with ginger hair. (The child has ginger hair.) |
In other instances, articles are common in both languages.
| Français | Anglais |
| C’est une jeune fille avec un regard moqueur. | She is a young girl with a mocking look. |
5 Weight and length
Definite article in French corresponds to the English use of indefinite article.
| Français | Anglais |
| Je l’ai acheté 5 euros le kilo. | I bought it 5 euros a kilogram. |
L’article partitif / Partitive article
The partitive refers to a part of something, often food or drink. Using it indicates that the amount is unknown or uncountable.
| Français | Anglais |
| Tu devrais gagner de l’argent tout d’abord. | You should earn (some) money first. |
La négation / Negation
DE is a variant of the indefinite and partitive article which appears in certain syntactic structures.
1 In negative context:
| Français | Anglais |
| Il a des problèmes financiers. | He’s got financial problems. |
| Il n’a pas de problèmes financies. | He’s got no financial problems. |
| Français | Anglais |
| Il y a une réunion. | There’s a meeting. |
| Il n’y a pas de réunion. | There’s no meeting. |
2 If adjectives come before nouns:
| Français | Anglais |
| Il a des problèmes. | He’s got problems. |
| Il a de graves problèmes. | He’s got serious problems. |
3 After adverbs of quantity :
| Français | Anglais |
| Il a des problèmes. | He’s got problems. |
| Il a beaucoup de problèmes. | He’s got a lot of problems. |