Un, une = A, an
All French nouns belong to one of the the two groups :
Masculine or Feminine
There is no rule to tell you to which group a noun belongs, althought the ending of a noun often acts as a guide.
For example :
* words ending in –age, -ment are often masculine , as in un village, un moment.
* words ending in –lle, -tte, -ion, -ée are often feminine as in une bouteille, une
cigarette, une addition, une journée.
The word a or an is un in front of a masculine noun
and une in front of a feminine noun.
Un or une also mean ‘one’.
When talking about more than one un and une become des (some). In most cases –s is added to the noun in the plural but there is no change in sound as you don’t usually pronounce the last consonant of a word in French.
Le, la, l’, les = the
Le is used with masculine nouns
La with feminine nouns
L’ with nouns starting with a vowel or a ‘ h’, either masculine (m) or feminine (f)
Les with plural nouns (m or f)
| Anglais |
Masculin |
Féminin |
Pluriel |
| A |
UN
Ex: un prénom |
UNE
une adresse |
DES
des adresses
des prénoms |
| THE |
LE
Ex: le nom |
LA
la nationalité |
LES
les noms,
les nationalités,
les écoles |
| Vowel |
L’
Ex: l’arbre |
L’
L’école |
|