Articles: Definite, Indefinite and Partitive

French has three sets of articles, and choosing the right one is one of the most tested skills in the exam. Each set has a masculine, feminine and plural form, and each set has a form for nouns beginning with a vowel or a silent h.

Type	Masculine	Feminine	Before vowel/h	Plural	Meaning
Definite	le	la	l'	les	the
Indefinite	un	une	un/une	des	a / some
Partitive	du	de la	de l'	des	some / any

Worked examples:

• le garçon (the boy), la fille (the girl), **l'**école (the school), les enfants (the children)
• un stylo (a pen), une table (a table), des livres (some books)
• du pain (some bread), de la confiture (some jam), **de l'**eau (some water)

The gender of the noun decides the form, so it pays to know each noun's gender first.

The definite article le/la/les means "the". Before a noun starting with a vowel or a silent h, both le and la shorten to l'. This is called elision.

Full form	Shortened	Reason
le ami ✗	**l'**ami	ami starts with a vowel
la école ✗	**l'**école	école starts with a vowel
le homme ✗	**l'**homme	h in homme is silent

Not every h allows elision. Most are silent (l'heure, l'hôtel), but a few are "aspirate" and block it: le héros (the hero), la Hollande. Treat these as exceptions to learn one by one.

The plural les never shortens: les amis, les écoles, les hommes. In speech, the final s of les links onto the following vowel (a liaison), so les amis sounds like "lay-zamis".

French uses the definite article in several places where English uses no article at all. This is a very common exam error, so learn these four cases.

Use	French example	English
General likes/dislikes	J'aime le café.	I like coffee.
Abstract nouns	La santé est importante.	Health is important.
Languages	J'apprends le français.	I am learning French.
Habitual days	Je joue au foot le samedi.	I play football on Saturdays.

After the verbs parler, étudier and similar, the language article is often dropped: Je parle français (I speak French), but J'aime le français (I like French). Keep the article when you like, learn or study the language as a subject.

The rule of thumb: if you are talking about something in general or as a whole, French wants le, la or les, even though English would say nothing.

The partitive article means "some" or "any". Use it for an unspecified amount of something you cannot easily count, especially food and drink. The form matches the gender of the noun.

Form	Used with	Example	English
du	masculine noun	Je mange du pain.	I eat some bread.
de la	feminine noun	Je bois de la limonade.	I drink some lemonade.
de l'	noun starting with vowel/h	Je bois **de l'**eau.	I drink some water.
des	plural noun	Je mange des légumes.	I eat some vegetables.

English often leaves out "some" — "I eat bread" — but French cannot: you must say du pain, never just pain on its own after the verb.

Compare the three articles with the same noun so the difference is clear:

• le café — coffee in general (J'aime le café — I like coffee)
• un café — a (cup of) coffee (Je voudrais un café — I'd like a coffee)
• du café — some coffee (Je bois du café — I drink some coffee)

Two situations replace un/une/du/de la/des with a plain de (or d' before a vowel).

1. After a negative the article becomes de:

Positive	Negative
J'ai un frère.	Je n'ai pas de frère.
Je mange du pain.	Je ne mange pas de pain.
Il y a des œufs.	Il n'y a pas **d'**œufs.

The definite article does not change after a negative: Je n'aime pas le café (I don't like coffee) keeps le, because this is a general statement, not a quantity.

2. After an expression of quantity the article is also de/d':

Expression	Example	English
beaucoup de	beaucoup de devoirs	a lot of homework
un peu de	un peu de sucre	a little sugar
trop de	trop de bruit	too much noise
un kilo de	un kilo de pommes	a kilo of apples
un verre de	un verre **d'**eau	a glass of water

The forms du and des are also contractions of de + le and de + les, so the same little words appear in more than one job (possession, quantity, partitive). The full contraction table is:

de + article	Contraction	Example
de + le	du	le sac du garçon (the boy's bag)
de + les	des	la couleur des murs (the colour of the walls)
de + la	de la (no change)	la porte de la maison
de + l'	de l' (no change)	le prix **de l'**hôtel

(Higher tier) At Higher, the partitive also covers uncountable ideas (avoir du courage — to have courage), the negative determiner aucun(e) appears (je n'ai aucun ami — I have no friend at all), and the article is often omitted after en (j'en ai — I have some of it). These build on the same core forms above.

The prepositions à and de with places (au, aux, du) are covered in the prepositions lesson; here the key point is recognising du and des as both partitive articles and contractions.

1. Dropping the article after a verb

English says "I eat bread"; French must say Je mange du pain. Leaving out the partitive (Je mange pain) is wrong.

2. Forgetting to change to de after a negative

Je n'ai pas de frère, not Je n'ai pas un frère. After ne...pas, un/une/du/de la/des all become de.

3. Changing the definite article after a negative

The definite article stays: Je n'aime pas le sport. Only the indefinite and partitive articles turn into de.

4. Using un/du after an expression of quantity

Say beaucoup de livres, not beaucoup des livres or beaucoup de les livres. Quantities are followed by plain de.

5. Forgetting the article in general statements

French keeps le/la/les where English drops "the": J'aime les animaux (I like animals), La musique est importante (Music is important).