In the eyes of the Russian people, France looks like something refined and intelligent. The rich culture of this country attracts tourists from all over the world, the architectural heritage amazes the mind of sophisticated connoisseurs, and the traditions encourage a relaxing holiday and unhurried dreams. To visit France is the number one goal for all the romantics of the world. But before you carry out your plan, you should get acquainted with the local language: the French do not like to speak English and are extremely reluctant to listen to it.
French is the language of the elite society
The nineteenth century went down in national history as French: in those days, the noble society could not imagine communicating in another language. Until now, it is considered a sign of luxury and we alth, and those who perfectly own it are people of considerable intellect. However, learning the language of capricious France is not so easy: in addition to many tenses and irregular verbs, there is a difficulty on a smaller scale, but no less significant - articles in French.
Why do we need articles?
It is difficult for a Russian to understand what function the articles perform in French speech, since the analogues inthey do not have a native language. However, the presence of articles is extremely important for the French: with their help, they convey information about whether the subject of conversation was mentioned earlier, whether it occurs in a speech for the first time or some part of it is spoken about. Articles in French play one of the main roles, so it is impossible to miss this topic, considering that it is useless to know it.
Types of French articles
Unlike common English, which has only two articles, French boasts three kinds of particles: definite, indefinite, and partial. Separately, you will have to memorize continuous articles, but this task is the last one on the list of those that must be completed for a complete understanding of French grammar.
Definite article
The definite article in French is one of the most common particles. Each text will necessarily contain more than a dozen specific nouns. Such particles are used with those words that have been encountered before, or with those that are a priori unique.
For example: Le Soleil éclaire la Terre - The sun illuminates the Earth. In this case, both the Sun and the Earth mean unique concepts - they are alone in the world, and there can be no talk of any others.
Une femme traverse la rue. La femme est jeune et belle. - The woman crosses the street. The woman is young and beautiful. In this case, we are talking about a woman already familiar from the previous remark, thereforethe definite article is used. For ease of understanding, you can mentally replace it with the words "this", "this", "this".
Indefinite article
An unfamiliar object, on the contrary, is indicated by the indefinite article. In French, it can be used before nouns that only belong to a certain class.
For example: C'est une belle bague - This is a beautiful ring. In this case, the word "ring" is not only used for the first time, but also means classiness - not everyone has beautiful rings.
Une femme lui a telefoné. The woman called him. The word "woman" has not been encountered before, and besides, who exactly called is not specified, so the word is preceded by the indefinite article une.
This type of article can be mentally defined by the words "some", "some", "some". For the correct use of this grammatical unit, you just need to understand the meaning of its use: the indefinite article indicates something unknown and non-specific.
Partial article
The partial article in French is used to denote uncountable objects and abstract concepts. Uncountable items include food, matter (air, water), material, generalizing words (noise, for example).
The shapes of this particle deserve special attention. They are formed by adding the preposition de to the definite article. For more clarity, please refer towith table.
| Masculine | Feminine | Plural |
| de+le=du | de+la=de la | de+les=des |
| du vin | de la musique | des épinards |
Usage examples: Je mange du viande - I eat meat. In this case, the partial article indicates that the action takes place with a separate unit of the product. "A man cannot eat all the provisions, - the French think, - this should be noted."
Vous avez du courage. - You are brave. Courage is an abstract concept that cannot be measured.
French articles: ways to remember
For a better understanding, it is worth working through the topic that the French language mainly consists of - "Articles". The exercises will put everything in its place, and the topic will be easy to remember. A good example of exercises are tasks in which you need to insert one of the types of articles in place of the gap.
Exercise 1
Use an appropriate article.
1) Marie adore _ roses (Answer: les).
2) Robert écrit _ texte, c'est _ texte sur _ cinéma (answer: un, un, le).
3) C'est _ nappe. C'est _ nappe de Julie. _ nappe est sur _ bureau (Answer: une, la, la, le).
There are several ways to help avoid confusion in the use of articles. Basically, they consist in structuring grammatical rules. Thus, you need to remember thatindefinite articles in French are used with nouns that occur for the first time, as well as with unknown concepts. Partial article - with something abstract and uncountable. With the words "water" and food names, the partial article can be mentally replaced by the word "part". Only the definite article remains, which is used in all other cases.
Articles help to understand the interlocutor's speech correctly, translate any text, and easily compose a sentence. In French, they are very important, because the correct sentence structure is provided by these particles. You don't need to cram the rules: understanding is what really matters. And it will definitely come, you just need to try a little.
