Nouns, Articles and Demonstrative Adjectives

All nouns in French have a gender, either masculine or feminine. For the most part, you must

memorize the gender, but there are some endings of words that will help you decide which gender a

noun is. Nouns ending in -age and -ment are usually masculine, as are nouns ending with a

consonant. Nouns ending in -ure, -sion, -tion, -ence, -ance, -té, and -ette are usually feminine.

Articles and adjectives must agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify. And articles

have to be expressed even though they aren't always in English; and you may have to repeat the

article in some cases. Demonstratives are like strong definite articles.

Definite Articles (The)

Masculine Feminine Before Vowel Plural

le lit la pomme l' oiseau les gants

the bed the apple the bird the gloves

Indefinite Articles (A, An, Some)

Masculine Feminine Plural

un lit une pomme des gants

a bed an apple some gloves

Demonstrative Adjectives (This, That, These, Those)

Masc. Masc, Before Vowel Fem. Plural

ce lit cet oiseau cette pomme ces gants

this/that bed this/that bird this/that apple these/those gloves

If you need to distinguish between this or that and these or those, you can add -ci to the end of the

noun for this and these, and -là to the end of the noun for that and those. For example, ce lit-ci is this

bed , while ce lit-là is that bed .