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| Beginner French Lesson > Lesson 1 > Grammar - The Monkeys & The Giraffes! |
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Grammar - The Monkeys & The Giraffes!
Overview:
No really, we are going to look at monkeys and giraffes!
Objective:
You should now know what a monkey and a giraffe are in French and how to say if there is more than one of them ! Superbly useful.
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| LE SINGE et LA GIRAFE! - The Monkey and the Giraffe! |
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| LE SINGE | | LA GIRAFE |
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OK I know what you are thinking what have a monkey and a giraffe got to do with anything?
Well let's look at the way we describe them first.
Remember that all nouns in French have a feminine or masculine gender.
| English | French [masc.] | |
| a monkey | un singe |  |
| the monkey | le singe | |
| the elephant | l'éléphant | |
UN is A. Un is used for all nouns that are MASCULINE.
LE is THE. Le is used for all nouns that are MASCULINE. |
| English | French [fem.] | |
| a giraffe | une girafe | |
| the giraffe | la girafe | |
| the ostrich | l'autruche | |
UNE is A. Une is used for all nouns that are FEMININE.
LA is THE. La is used for all nouns that are FEMININE. |
MALE AND FEMALE EXCEPTIONS:
L' is THE. L' is used if the nouns starts with a vowel, h or y ! Whether it is Male of Female (Ostrich above is female and elephant isn't!)
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Things change when there is more than one of something!
| English | French [pluriel] | |
| the monkeys | les singes | |
| the giraffes | les girafes | |
| the ostriches | les autruches | |
| some elephants | des éléphants | |
In all cases LES is THE. This is because there are all more than one, this is applicable for Masculine, Feminine even if it's a vowel.
For the purpose of this excercise DES is SOME.
More on this later! |
A common way to summarise this is shown below..
| LES ARTICLES |
Singular |
Plural |
| masculine |
feminine |
masculine ou feminine |
| Articles indéfinis (a) |
un |
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une |
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des |
| Articles définis (the) |
le |
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la |
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les |
l'
(for: a, e, i, o, u or h) |
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
A = UN, UNE or DES (if more than one)
The = LE , LA OR LES.
Depending on whether the word is masculine, feminine or plural. Simple. |
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