Chapter 4: Les Articles - Défini et Indéfinis

Introduction of Definite and Indefinite 

In French language every noun has a gender – masculine or feminine. There is no neuter gender. Therefore, every time we learn a new noun, we have to alos learn whether it is masculine or feminine.
One of the eight parts of speech, an article is a word that modifies a noun in a particular way, by stating whether the noun is specific, unspecific, or partial. There are three types of French articles and they all agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.
 

Gender Categorization

1) Definite/Défini

The definite articles indicate that the speaker is referring to either a specific noun or to a class of nouns in a general sense. The English definite article, the, has four equivalent forms in French, depending on the gender and number of the noun as well as what letter it begins with.

The indefinite article indicates that the speaker is referring to either an unspecific noun or to one/some of something. The English indefinite article has two forms, a and an, while the French has three, depending on the gender and number of the noun.

  The English equivalent of des is some, which is considered an adjective rather than an article.

Usage and meaning of

Articles

2) Indefinite / Indéfini