Welcome to this deck on French nouns and articles. One of the biggest differences between French and English is that every noun in French has a grammatical gender. It's either masculine or feminine. This gender often has no logical connection to the object itself, so you simply have to learn the gender along with the noun. Knowing the gender is essential because it determines which article, or 'the' word, you use.

Let's start with definite articles, which mean 'the'. In French, there are four ways to say 'the'. For a masculine singular noun, you use 'le'. For a feminine singular noun, you use 'la'. For any plural noun, masculine or feminine, you use 'les'. Finally, if a singular noun starts with a vowel or a silent 'h', you use 'l' apostrophe, regardless of its gender.