Language/French/Grammar/Typical-use-of-the-indefinite-article

How do we use the indefinite article in French?

Definitions

French Articles

French has 3 kinds of articles:

1. Definite articles
2. Indefinite articles
3. Partitive articles

The table below summarizes the different forms:

French Articles
	Definite article	Indefinite article	Partitive
masculine	le	un	du
feminine	la	une	de la
in front of a vowel	l'	un/une	de l'
plural	les	des	des

Definite article

In French, nouns are almost always preceded by an article or a determiner. This indicates the gender of the noun (masculine or feminine) and its number (singular or plural).

The definite article (articles définis) (le, la, les) goes with a noun whose meaning is completely determined.

They correspond to the English article "the".

Examples:

• sur la table

on the table

• près de la fenêtre

near the window

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Lessons : Definite article & Indefinite article

New, countable & concrete nouns

You can use the indefinite article to introduce a new, concrete, countable noun (maison, tableau, livre, voiture, etc.):

• Je me suis trouvé une joli propriété en Espagne

I found myself a nice property in Spain

• Voulez-vous admirer un Cézanne?

Do you want to admire a Cézanne?

Countable & concrete entities

Another is to describe a general class of countable, concrete entities:

• Normalement une voiture a 4 roues et un vélo en a 2

Normally a car has 4 wheels and a bike 2

• II s'agit d'une erreur classique d'un élève de CM2

This is a classic mistake made by a CM2 student.

In this 'generic' use, the indefinite article is usually interchangeable with a plural definite article:

• Normalement les voitures ont 4 roues et les vélos en ont 2
• Il s'agit d'une erreur classique des élèves de CM2

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de + definite article les

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Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns ("courage, beauté, réalisme, importance" / courage, beauty, realism, importance, etc.) are normally accompanied by the definite article. But when they are modified by an adjective they take an indefinite article.

Compare:

• II admire l'intégrité

He admires integrity

• Il a montré une intégrité exemplaire

He showed an exemplary integrity

• La beauté du lieu nous avait laissé bouche-bée

The beauty of the place left us speechless

• Le château de cette région de la Loire était d'une beauté incroyable

The castle in this region of the Loire was incredibly beautiful

Other chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds