You already know how to use adjectives to describe someone:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Paul est intelligent. | Paul is intelligent. |
| Sofia est timide. | Sofia is shy. |
| Omar est sympathique. | Omar is friendly. |
You can also describe things. To do that, you need nouns and the articles that go with them.
Nouns have grammatical gender
A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Like adjectives, French nouns have grammatical gender.
Every noun in French is either masculine or feminine.
Here are some common nouns:
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| café | soupe |
| restaurant | maison |
| livre | voiture |
You need to know the grammatical gender of a noun because it affects other words you use with it.
Use un and une
One way to see the grammatical gender of a noun is through the article that comes before it.
Use un with a masculine noun and une with a feminine noun:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| un café | a café |
| une soupe | a soup |
| un restaurant | a restaurant |
| une maison | a house |
| un livre | a book |
| une voiture | a car |
It is useful to learn a new noun together with its article. For example, learn un café rather than just café and une maison rather than just maison.
Use le and la
French also uses le with masculine nouns and la with feminine nouns:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| le café | the café |
| la soupe | the soup |
| le restaurant | the restaurant |
| la maison | the house |
| le livre | the book |
| la voiture | the car |
So the same noun can appear with different articles:
| Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|
| un café | une soupe |
| le café | la soupe |
| un restaurant | une maison |
| le restaurant | la maison |
| un livre | une voiture |
| le livre | la voiture |
The article changes, but the grammatical gender of the noun does not. Café, restaurant, and livre are masculine. Soupe, maison, and voiture are feminine.
Describe things with adjectives
You already know that adjectives must agree with the grammatical gender of the noun they describe.
You can now use a noun as the subject and add an adjective with être:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Le café est petit. | The café is small. |
| La maison est grande. | The house is large. |
| La soupe est excellente. | The soup is excellent. |
| Le livre est petit. | The book is small. |
| La voiture est grande. | The car is large. |
When grand describes a person, it means tall. When it describes a place or thing, it often means large.
These sentences use the same pattern you have already learned:
subject + form of être + information
The subject is now a noun with an article:
| Subject | Form of être | Information |
|---|---|---|
| Le café | est | petit. |
| La maison | est | grande. |
| Le livre | est | petit. |
| La voiture | est | grande. |
The article and the adjective both reflect the grammatical gender of the noun.
Listening and reading
Play the audio and listen as Julie talks about some places and things. Try to understand as much as you can before revealing the French text.
Listen again while reading the French.
Show the French transcription
Le café est petit. Le restaurant est grand.
La maison est grande. La voiture est petite.
La soupe est excellente. Le livre est petit.
Compare the English version with what you understood from the French.
Show the English translation
The café is small. The restaurant is large.
The house is large. The car is small.
The soup is excellent. The book is small.
Put it together
You can now use basic articles with masculine and feminine nouns and use those nouns as the subjects of simple descriptions.
In the next lesson you'll learn to use parler to talk about the languages you and other people speak.