Illusion of Gaia/fr-en/The Beginning/Grammar

Indefinite and Defnite Articles

Recall that in English "the" is a definite article and "a/an" are indefinite articles. Definite articles mark something spefiic: the book on the floor, the building past the street. Indefinite articles mark something unspefic: give me a pen, there is a dog in the street.French has the same articles, so that part will be easy. What won't be so easy, is that articles are divided into two caterogries, two genders: femine and masculine. All nouns have a gender, and their isn't a neutral gender. While nouns have gender, it isn't based on the object itself. Moustache is feminine, while soutien-gorge (bra) is masculine. Let's look at the four articles:

             Definite         Indefinite

Masculine Le un

Feminie La une

These are used just like in English:

• La fille - The girl
• Le chien - The dog
• Une pomme- an apple
• Un garcon - a boy