Definite Articles: le, la, les, l'

Level: A1. French has four forms of the definite article — le, la, l’ and les — all meaning “the”. Get the four forms right and your French immediately sounds more natural, because the article appears very often.

The rule

A definite article means “the” — a specific, known thing. In French it agrees with the noun’s gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural):

• le — masculine singular: le livre (the book).
• la — feminine singular: la table (the table).
• l’ — before a vowel or a mute h, singular: l’ami, l’école, l’homme.
• les — plural, both genders: les livres, les tables.

The change from le/la to l’ before a vowel is called elision. It is the normal rule, with a few fixed exceptions (for example le onze, le huit, and le un when un names the digit itself, as in le un de ce numéro). Words starting with a consonant /j/ sound, such as le yaourt, also keep le/la.

The forms at a glance

	Masculine	Feminine	Before vowel / mute h	Plural
“the”	le livre	la table	l’ami, l’école	les livres / les tables

Example sentences

Each sentence was written for this lesson (not copied from a third-party corpus).

1. Le livre est sur la table. — The book is on the table.
2. La maison est grande. — The house is big.
3. **L’**ami de Marie est ici. — Marie’s friend is here.
4. **L’**école est fermée. — The school is closed.
5. Les enfants sont à la maison. — The children are at home.
6. Le chat dort. — The cat is sleeping.
7. La voiture est rouge. — The car is red.
8. **L’**homme parle français. — The man speaks French. (mute h)
9. Les fleurs sont belles. — The flowers are beautiful.
10. J’aime le café. — I like coffee. (general statement)
11. Les chiens aiment courir. — Dogs like to run. (general)
12. La liberté est importante. — Freedom is important. (abstract idea)

Common mistakes

• ❌ le école → ✅ l’école. Elide le/la to l’ before a vowel.
• ❌ la ami → ✅ l’ami.
• ❌ le hôtel → ✅ l’hôtel. The h in hôtel is mute, so elision applies.
• ❌ I like coffee = J’aime café → ✅ J’aime le café. French needs the article for general statements.
• ❌ la livre → ✅ le livre. Livre (book) is masculine; match the gender.

A handful of words begin with an aspirated h and block elision: le héros (the hero), le haricot (the bean) — not l’héros. A few special words starting with a written vowel also block it, notably le onze; and yaourt starts with a /j/ consonant sound, so it is le yaourt.

Compared with…

• Indefinite articles (un, une, des) — “a / some”, for things not yet specified.
• Partitive articles (du, de la, de l’, des) — “some” of an uncountable thing (e.g. de l’eau).
• Contractions au (à + le), aux (à + les), du (de + le) and des (de + les). Note des can also be a plural indefinite/partitive article.

These are listed in the French grammar section.

Quick recap before the quiz.

Mini quiz

1. ___ livre (masculine)
2. ___ école (feminine, vowel)
3. ___ enfants (plural)
4. J’aime ___ chocolat. (general)
5. ___ voiture (feminine)

Answers

1. le — masculine singular.
2. l’ — elision before a vowel (l’école).
3. les — plural.
4. le — definite article for a general statement.
5. la — feminine singular.

Sources & licensing

• Article forms cross-checked with Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).
• This topic sits at beginner level (A1) in common course sequencing; the CEFR and DELF frameworks are used as general references, not as a topic-by-topic level ruling.
• Example sentences were written for this lesson; no third-party sentences were copied.

Next

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