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In the last lesson, you learned how to talk about one person—le professeur (the teacher), l’étudiant (the student), and l’ami (the friend). And that’s great! But what if you want to talk about a plurality--a whole group of things? For example, you might want to say something about the boys or the girls or the people. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the plural definite article les, how to use it, and how to change a singular noun to a plural one.
Watch the video to see a few examples of singular and plural definite articles.
Bonjour, je m’appelle Marc! In this lesson, we’re going to talk about plural nouns and their definite articles. Vous êtes prêts? Super, on y va!
Do you remember what a definite article is? English has one definite article—the word the. But in French, le, la, l’, and les are all definite articles. You’ve already learned about le la, and “l’”, so it’s time to focus on les.
Les is the definite article that goes with plural nouns in French. Les is used with both masculine and feminine nouns in their plural form. Let’s make some singular nouns plural.
Le livre becomes les livres, and la règle becomes les règles. See? Très bien! Let’s look at some more.
Le cartable becomes les cartables.
La table becomes les tables.
But what about nouns that use l’, like ordinateur?
L’ordinateur becomes les ordinateurs.
Oh! That one sounds different! What’s going on? Because the “s” in les is followed by the “o” in ordinateur, you glide the two words together: les ordinateurs. Can you Try saying it with me. Les ordinateurs. Très bien!
Let’s do another one. Repeat after me: l’agrafeuse. What does that one look like when it’s plural? Les agrafeuses. Très bien!
How about I give you the singular noun, and you give me the plural? La télévision. What is the plural of la télévision?
Les télévisions. Super!
Now I’ll give you the plural, and you give me the singular. Les montres. What is the singular form of les montres?
La montre! Did you write down the correct definite article? Fantastique!
let’s review. In this video, you learned about the plural definite article les. Both masculine and feminine nouns use les when they are plural. To make a noun plural in French, you usually add an -s, just like in English.
You’ve got it! Bon travail! À bientôt!
Question
What is the plural definite article in French?
les
