The Article in French Grammar

1.3 The Article in French Grammar

The etymology of the word “article” comes from Latin articulus and it means “small member”.

According to the French linguist Maurice Grevisse article is a word placed before the noun in order to mark that this noun is taken in its complete or incomplete determined meaning; it also serves to indicate the gender and the number of the noun it precedes.

N.B. Grevisse also says in his book “Le bon usage” that the article can be arranged among the adjectives as it serves to introduce the noun.

Thus, comparing with English we see that in the French grammar the article is also placed before the noun. It also has the function of a determiner. But, as distinct from the English article the article in French besides its determination of the noun semantically has the function of determining it from the grammatical point of view. It serves to indicate the noun’s gender and number. Hence it appears the first difference between the articles in English and in French.

There are two types of articles in French: definite(défini) and indefinite(indéfini).

Note: it is distinguished often the third type of the article in French – the partitif article, but this one can be relevant by its forms to the definite article and by its meaning it can be belonged to the group of the indefinite article.

So, we find out the second difference between the articles of the two languages. The English and the French Languages have three types of articles and we saw that the first two types coincide in their names: definite and indefinite. Speaking about the third type of articles in both languages it should be noted that in English it is called zero article and in written speech it is rendered by the absence of the article but in French it is called the partitif article which has four forms but we will speak about them in greater length in 1.3.3

1.3.1 The Definite Article in French

Making the parallel between the English and the French grammar we can observe that in the French language articles agree with nouns they determine in gender and number.

The French definite articles (l’article défini) are:

le – with nouns in masculine, singular, le garçon;

la – with nouns in feminine, singular, la fille;

l’ – with nouns in masculine and feminine in the singular form

beginning with a vowel or mute h, l’arbre, l’ère, l’habitude, l’homme;

les – with nouns in masculine and feminine in the plural form, les enfants.

1.3.1.1 The History of the French Definite Article

Speaking about the French definite article one should know that it was a roman innovation. It came from Latin ille(masculine) and illa(feminine) which served as adjectives and demonstrative pronouns as well. In ancient France only the proclitic form of them was preserved that lost early their first syllable and became unstressed.

(il)li>li − Nominative case, masculine, singular

(il)lu(m)>lo was used till the end of the XIth c. and then deafened in le − Objective case, masculine, singular

illī>li, illos>los soon was replaced by les − masculine, plural;

illa>la − feminine, singular;

illas>les − feminine, plural.

The French definite article retains a long time the demonstrative and the determinative meanings:

e.g.: Tresqu’en la mer cunquist la tere altaigne. (Rol.,3)

Jusqu'à la mer il conquist la terre hautaine.

He conquered the lordly land till the sea.

This is an example of the French article’s agreement with the noun in gender, number and case; at the same time the article determines the noun being used as ancient demonstrative: “la mer” means “this sea”= ‘the sea’.

So, we notice that the development of the French language was influenced by Latin which already had some notions of gender, number and case. It should be mentioned that from the previous times the French definite article had the forms of masculine and feminine. It had differentiations between singular and plural forms. Apparently the French article had the same meaning of a demonstrative.

Since English and French are two languages from different linguistic families they were developed differently. The articles have different origins. That is why there are many differences in their characteristics.

Nevertheless, both, the English definite article and the French definite article, take their origin from the demonstrative pronoun retaining the demonstrative meaning till nowadays.

1.3.1.2 Article élidé

One of the forms of the definite article in French is used with the apostrophe (l’) and has its own name article élidé (fused article). It is used only with nouns that begin with a vowel or mute h in singular. The definite articles le, la lose their vowels in such cases and take the apostrophe – l’, e.g. l’arbre, l’ère, l’homme, l’habitude.