1. Semaine 02: mardi
Grammaire

2. Il y a plus d’un âne à la foire qui s’appelle Martin
Don’t jump to conclusions.

3. Introduction to Genre

4. First…what is a noun?
A noun can be a
Person
Place
Thing/ Idea

5. What is ‘genre’?
Genre, or gender, is grammatical designation given to nouns based on whether a noun is considered to be masculin- masculine-or féminin- feminine.
All nouns in French are given a genre of either masculin or féminin, but these are not to be taken literally.
A person can be masculine or feminine, but inanimate objects and ideas do not have a ‘real’ gender.

6. How genre is used in French
Genre is used with all nouns, therefore this concept is used constantly and requires practice and care to master.
Genre can be observed in French definite and indefinite articles (to be explained individually in just a moment)

7. Les Articles défini Definite Articles
Les articles défini- or definite articles- simple mean the word « the » in English.
I.e.
The book, the cat, the student, the beach…
The way in which one would say the word definite article ‘the’ depends on if the noun is masculin or féminin

8. Les Articles défini Definite Articles
Masculin
Féminin Le La
Exemple: le chat
the cat
Exemple: la plage
the beach

9. What if the noun is plural?
First of all, what does plural mean?
Plural means to be more than one in number. The opposite of plural is singular, meaning ‘one’
In English, we normally add an ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the end of the word, for instance: two cats / seven classes / sixty minutes/ ten beaches
When you have more than one number of a particular noun there is another way to say the word ‘the’
This type of ‘the’ does not show regard for the genre of the nouns. All that matters here is if the noun is plural.

10. Les Articles défini Definite Articles
PLURIEL (Plural)
Les
Exemple:
les chats les plages
the cats the beaches

11. Les Articles Indéfini Indefinite articles
Les articles indéfini, or indefinite articles, a words that can mean ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘one’, or ‘some’
With les articles défini, we were saying ‘the ______’: we wanted a specific thing, not just ‘a cat’, but we wanted the cat.
You know when you say to your friends, ‘Hey, let’s go to the mall!’ they know exactly what mall you were referring to. The phrase ‘Hey, let’s go to a mall’ means what mall you want to go to is up for discussion. Make sense?

12. Les Articles Indéfini Indefinite articles
Masculin
Féminin Un
Une
Exemple: un chien
a dog
Exemple: une pomme
an apple

13. What if the noun is plural?
Since we know plural means to be more than one in number, you know that this article indéfini is used with nouns that are plural regardless of the genre assigned to the noun.
When you have more than one number of a particular noun, you need to use the word ‘some ’
Special note: We don’t use the word ‘some’ often in English, but in French you must use it. Hint- if you could use the word ‘some’ in English in a phrase then you must use this word in your French translation!

14. Les Articles indéfini indefinite Articles
PLURIEL (Plural)
des
Exemple:
des chiens des pommes
some dogs some apples