The article in French, l ?? article, is used and applied in various ways. French grammar has more variants of the article than in Dutch. The most striking is the sharing article. This is often used in French, but does not exist in Dutch at all. A few grammatical tips for those who go on holiday to France are a bonus. This will help you understand the language better and make yourself understood much more easily in the country.
Types of articles
We know three types of articles in French, namely:
- the definite article,
- the indefinite article, and the
- sharing article.
It takes a while to find out what is again something. Below is a brief explanation.
The definite article
The definite article becomes in French ?? l ?? article défini ?? mentioned. In Dutch we mean ?? the ?? and ?? it ??, in French it is ?? le, la, l ??, les ??. That means that French has four variants and Dutch only two:
- ?? le ?? : with a masculine noun,
- “la ??: by a feminine noun,
- ?? l ?? ?? : with a noun that starts with a vowel, and
- ?? lesson ??: with a plural.
Some examples are:
- le vin: the wine
- le garçon: the boy
- la femme: the woman
- l ?? homme: the man
- de la glace: ice cream
- lesson: the people
- les garçons: the boys
The indefinite article
This article is called in French ?? l ?? article indéfini ??, in Dutch we mean ?? an ??.
L ?? article indéfini has three variants:
- ?? un ?? with a masculine noun,
- “une ?? by a feminine noun, and,
- ?? des ?? with a plural.
Here are also some examples:
- un vin: a wine
- une femme: a woman
- un stylo: a pen
- of gens: people
The sharing article
Finally, the sharing article, or ?? l ?? article partitif ??.
The general rule is that if no article is used in Dutch, in French ?? l ?? article partitif ?? is applied. This sharing article is therefore not translated into Dutch.
In French these are ?? du ??, ?? de la ??, ?? de l ?? ??, and ?? des ?? in the plural.
Some examples of the sharing article:
- du pain: bread
- de la viande: meat
- de l ?? argent: money
- des élèves: pupils
- du vin: wine
- de l’eau: water
- des oeufs: eggs
As you can see, the sharing article remains untranslated in the Netherlands. ?? des élèves ?? for example means “pupils”, and not “pupils”, because that is again “les élèves”.
Article after quantity
After an indication of a quantity, we do not use an article in Dutch, but the French do use it the:
- combi the vin: how much wine;
- un liter the lait: a liter of milk;
- une bouteille the vin: a bottle of wine;
- beaucoup the tomates: lots of tomatoes;
- peu the thé: little tea;
- un peu the chocolat: a little chocolate;
- assez the beurre: enough butter.
Articles and verbs such as to like, to dislike
Then there are verbs with a mood expression (how you feel, what you think of something) that influence the article used in French. Think of verbs like:
- aimer: to love;
- détester: hate;
- préférer: to have a preference for;
- adorer: to worship.
In these cases we always use le, la, l ‘or les as the article and not du, de la, de l’ or des. That is different than you would expect.
Some examples:
- J’aime le pain and not j’aime du pain;
- You déteste l ‘ école and not Je déteste de l’école;
- J’aime lesson chiens and not J’aime des chiens.