(le) ami - l'ami - lahmee - the (male) friend
(la) amie - l'amie - lahmee the (female) friend
(le) élève - l'élève - lay lev - the student
(la) heure - l'heure - leur - the hour/the time
Elision does not occur on an aspired h:
(le) héros - le héros - a legendary hero
In addition to the definite article, elision will also occur with other words, such as que, je, le, ce, ne, and de.
The details on these words will be covered in later sections of the book.
The indefinite article
In English, the indefinite articles are "a" and "an". "Some" is used as a plural article in English.
Again, indefinite articles in French take different forms depending on gender and plurality. The articles "Un"
and "une" literally mean "one" in French.
French Grammar ? Print version ?
audio (info ?55 kb ? help)
The Indefinite Article L'article indéfini
feminine
une oon une fille
a daughter
singular masculine un uh un fils
a son
des filles some daughters
plural
des day des fils1 some sons
1"des fils" does mean "some sons" but is a homograph: it can also mean "some threads" (when pronounced like "fill")
Liaison
Remember that the last consonant of a word is typically not pronounced unless followed by a vowel. When a word ending in a consonant is followed by a word beginning with a vowel sound (or silent h), the consonant often becomes pronounced. This is a process called liaison. When a vowel goes directly after un, the normally unpronounced n sound becomes pronounced.
(un) ami - un ami ( uhnahmee) - a (male) friend
n
(un) élève - un élève ( uhnay lev) - a student
n
Compare the pronunciation to words without liaison:
un garçon ( uh gehrsoh)
Une is unaffected by liaison.
Liaison also occurs with les and des.
(les) amis - les amis ( layzahmee) - (some) (male) friends
z
(des) amis - des amis ( dayzahmee) - (some) (male) friends
z
(des) amies - des amies ( dayzahmee) - (some) (female) friends
z
In this book, you will see liaison denoted with or between two words.
n
z
As with elision, an aspired h isn't liaised.
(les) hangars - les hangars
"Some"
Note that des, like les, is used in French before plural nouns when no article is used in English. For example, you are looking at photographs in an album. The English statement "I am looking at photographs." cannot be translated to French as "Je regarde photographies" because an article is required to tell which photographs are being looked at. If it is a set of specific pictures, the French statement should be "Je regarde les photographies." ("I am looking at the photographs.") . On the other hand, if the person is just randomly
