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The French definite article corresponds to the in English. There are four forms of the
French definite article:
Singular
le la l' les
Which definite article to use depends on three things: the noun's gender, number, and
first letter. If the noun is plural, use les. If it's singular starting with a vowel or mute h,
use l'. If it's singular and starts with a consonant, use le if it's masculine and la if it's
feminine.
The definite article is also used in French to indicate the general sense of a noun.
The article is not used in this sense in English.
The French definite article is used much more often than its English counterpart. In
the introduction to the French definite article, we learned that it is used to indicate a
specific noun (Je vais à la banque) or to talk about a noun in a generic sense (J'aime la
glace). The French definite article has a number of other uses, which this lesson will
discuss in detail.
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Vocab:
- la banque = bank
The French definite article is used in front of the following kinds of nouns, whereas it
is often not used here in English.
A. Specific objects
Vocab:
- le tiroir = drawer
- l’essence = gas
( Je viens, Tu viens, Il/On vient, Nous venons, Vous venez, Ils viennent)