Agreement

French agreementGrammatical agreement is a vast topic - and one of the banes of French students. While in English we have a few pronouns and adjectives that indicate gender and number (e.g., he/him/his and she/her/hers), in French, agreement is found in 5 of the 8 parts of speech.

   

Article Comparison

Comparison of French articlesThere are three types of French articles (definite, indefinite, and partitive), and it's not always easy to know which one you need. Here's a detailed comparison to help you decide.

   

   

   

De vs Du, de la, des

De vs du, de la, desThe preposition de can be very difficult for French students, even at advanced levels. Knowing whether to use du, de la, or des rather than just de can be a real challenge! This lesson is a detailed explanation of when to use the preposition de all by itself and when to use the indefinite article, partitive article, or de + definite article (which looks like the partitive - but isn't. Ugh!)

   

Definite Article – le, la, l’, les

French definite articleThe French definite articles (le, la, l', les) indicate either a particular noun or, contrarily, the general sense of a noun. They're used similarly to their English counterpart "the," but there are many instances where a definite article is required in French but not English.

   

Determiners

French determinersDeterminers are a category of grammatical terms that includes articles, numbers, and non-qualifying adjectives. Unlike qualifying adjectives, determiners serve two functions: they introduce and modify nouns at the same time.

   

   

   

Negative de

French article reductionThere are three types of French articles (definite - indefinite - partitive). In negative constructions, two of them are usually required to change to de, meaning "(not) any."