Noun phrases

The things talked about in a sentence are typically found inside the noun phrase. Noun phrases in French can take a variety of forms:

• A proper noun which names a person, place or entity: for example Michel, Montréal, l'avenue Charles, Notre-Dame.
• A determiner like le followed by a noun: for example le chat (= the cat)
• A determiner followed by an adjective, then a noun: for example le gros chat (= the big cat)
• A determiner followed by a noun and possibly adjectives or other modifiers: for example: le chat gris (= the grey cat)
• Other structures we will see later.

It is useful to think of determiners as containers and the rest of the noun phrase as the contents of the container. For example, if you see the noun phrase un chat (= 'a cat'), then the un tells you that the thing which follows is a new element of the conversation. On the other hand, if you see the noun phrase le chat ('the cat'), then the le tells you that the thing which follows is assumed to be known to you.

Determiners in French are of several types as the following table shows. For the moment, treat each of the variant forms in French as all equivalent to the English form. We will see shortly that this is a simplification.

Finding proper nouns

Like English, French marks proper nouns by an initial capital letter. So when you are first confronted with a text in French, begin by looking for capital letters. However, there are several factors you should keep in mind when doing this:

• in French, some proper nouns are written without an article, as in the names of people (Pierre, Napoléon), and cities (Paris, Kingston), but many others are preceded by a determiner, as in le Canada, la France, l'Ontario
• in French, the names of languages are written with lowercase letters: thus, one writes le français, l'anglais where English would have French, English
• in French, proper names used as adjectives are also written with lowercase letters: thus, on writes la constitution canadienne or une perspective harperesque whereas in English, one would write the Canadian constitution or a Harperesque perspective.

Number and agreement

Earlier, we assumed that forms like ce, cette, ces were equivalent, and for translation purposes they can often be treated as such. However, these changes in form hide several important semantic distinctions, including number and gender. Let us look first at number.

Consider the following examples:

Notice that French marks the plural twice in writing, by the -s on les and by the -s on chats, while English only adds an -s to the noun. In this, written French is redundant: it sends the same information twice. (A note in passing: things are not quite so simple in spoken French, where both the singular and plural of chat are pronounced the same and the difference between singular and plural is shown only by the difference in the determiner.)

As the following table shows, the two principal plural markings on nouns and adjectives in French are -s and -x, and some French nouns are invariable in the plural.

The repetition of plural markings in French provides a valuable clue for the limits of the noun phrase. So, for example, if we see a sequence like les chaises bleues ('the blue chairs'), the fact that all three words (determiner, noun and adjective) end in -s lets us know that they hang together in a single noun phrase. In fact, as we will see later, agreement allows French to show relations even across longer spans of text.

Noun phrases and gender

Let us turn now to gender. Consider the following examples:

Notice that French chooses between le> and la>, while English uses only the>. The distinction between le and la in French can carry one of two meanings. In the case of animate entities like people and animals, le refers to males and la to females. So, le juge is a male judge, while la juge is a female judge. Sometimes the male/female distinction is carried by some aspect of the noun as well, like the ending: le tigre (male tiger) versus la tigresse (female tiger).

In the case of all other nouns in French, the difference between masculine (forms like un, le, ce, mon, ton, son) and feminine (forms like une, la, cette, ma, ta, sa) is used to disambiguate words into separate classes. In some cases, the only way to determine the meaning of a word is to look at its gender. Thus, la mode means 'style', while le mode means 'way of doing' as in le mode d'emploi 'instructions on how to perform some task'. As a result, attention to gender is critical.

Unfortunately for the learner of French, the assignment of gender to most nouns must be learned, as the following list of items found in a kitchen shows:

• la table
• la chaise
• le couteau
• la fourchette
• la tasse
• le verre
• le sel
• le poivre

Mouse over each of the preceding words to see its English equivalent.

Some rules for predicting gender

Fortunately, the assignment of gender is not entirely random in French. There exist a number of factors which allow us to predict the gender of a noun with more or less accuracy.

By sex

Nouns which designate males are usually masculine, while those which designate females are usually feminine. So, as we saw above, le juge is masculine and la juge is feminine. In earlier periods, French often used the masculine to designate all members of a profession, even if they were women, but this has changed considerably in recent years, particularly in Canada. The following table shows some of the principal rules used to designate a woman occupying some employment position.

For a more complete list, see here and especially here.

By suffix

Most French suffixes carry a gender. As a result, once you have determined that some word is a noun, you should check whether it has a suffix and use that to determine its gender. Here is a list of some common suffixes and their gender:

Semantic classes

Certain categories of objects or concepts share a common gender, as the following table illustrates:

As you read more and more texts in French, pay attention to the gender of the nouns you come across. This will help you in two ways. First, you will begin to see the patterns of association between form and gender, and secondly and most importantly, we will see that, as in the case of number, gender is crucial in French by its role in showing long-distance relationships in a text.

Plurals and elided forms

We have seen how the difference between masculine and feminine is important in French. Unfortunately, the distinction is sometimes hidden. This happens in the plural, as the following table shows.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that when a determiner like le or la precedes a noun beginning with a pronounced vowel (including most nouns beginning with h), it is elided. This process of elision effectively 'hides' the gender, as the following examples illustrate. Mouse over each of these words to see the gender.

• l'amour
• l'homme
• l'humanité
• l'île
• l'obstination

So, what is one to do? Fortunately, a partial solution to this and a number of other problems is provided by agreement in number and gender.

Agreement in gender and number

Consider the following sequences:

1. le petit chat noir 'the little black cat'
2. la petite table noire 'the little black table'

Note that the masculine singular noun chat is surrounded by le, petit and vert, all of which are masculine and singular. Together, they provide three additional clues that chat is masculine and singular. They also show that the four words 'hang together' in a single noun phrase.

In the same way, the feminine singular noun table is surrounded by la, petite and verte, all of them feminin singular forms. They also provide multiple clues that table is feminine and singular, as well as showing that la and petite and table and verte are all part of the same structure.

Now consider the following sequences:

1. les petits chats noirs 'the little black cats'
2. les petites tables noires 'the little black tables'

The addition of -s to each of the words shows that they are all plural. In French, such agreement in number and gender forms a powerful device that you should always pay particular attention to.

Countable and uncountable nouns

Some things in the world can be counted. We can say, for example, One cat, two cats, three cats, ah, ah, ah! Others, however, typically can't, as in Some sand, some food, some water. We call nouns that can be counted count nouns and those which can't, non-count nouns.

French has the same distinction, and forms to show the difference. So, if we want to express the concept 'two cats', we can write deux chats, but if we want to express the concept 'some sand' as presented for the first time, we use the partitive article and write du sable. As in the case of other determiners, French has a masculine form (du) and a feminine form (de la, as in de la nourriture). Before a vowel, the form de l' is used, as in de l'eau 'some water'.

Of course, if we want to talk about some already presented sand, we would say le sable and to specify some particular sand, ce sable.

Abstract nouns

In French, like in English, some nouns refer to directly observable things, like tables, chairs, trees and cats, while others refer to abstract concepts like courage, luck, timidity and fear. In English, nouns referring to abstract concepts often do not take a determiner: we say, for example, Courage is a rare quality or Luck was with him that time.

In French, however, we have two choices. If we are referring to some instance of the abstract class for the first time, we use the partitive article, as in Elle a du courage 'She has courage'. However, to refer to the abstract class in general, we use the definite article, as in Le courage est une qualité assez rare 'Courage is quite a rare quality'. And to refer specifically to a particular instance of courage, we use the demonstrative adjective, as in Ce courage est exceptionnel 'Such courage is exceptional'. Finally, to refer to courage as related to someone, we use the possessive adjective, as in Son courage nous impressionne 'His/her courage is impressive'.

Because French can use the definite article to refer both to specific instances and to general classes, it is important to pay attention to the context. For example, in a text, l'homme can mean 'the man' or 'man, as in humanity in general'.

Finding noun phrases

When faced with a French sentence, begin by finding the determiners. These will help you find the noun phrases. Then look for nouns that follow the determiners and agree in gender and number with them. After that, again using agreement, find elements which modify the nouns to see the full extent of the noun phrase.

Remember also how the combination of a noun plus an adjective in French is frequently equivalent to an adjective plus a noun in English, as the following table shows:

Further determination of noun phrases

So far, we have considered various sorts of determiners, including direct and indirect articles and demonstrative and possessive adjectives. However, there exist several other sorts of determiners which, rather that simply presenting a noun, give an indication of quantity, of proximity to the speaker, and of proportions. Let us consider them now.

Quantities

Like English, French has a complex system of quantification based on numbers. In particular, it has cardinal numbers like un, deux, trois (one, two, three), and ordinal numbers like premier, deuxième, troisième (first, second, third).

In all cases but two, the ordinal numbers are produced by adding -ième to the corresponding cardinal number. So if dix is 10, then dixième is tenth. The exceptions occur in the case of un and deux, which have as their ordinal equivalents premier/première/premiers/premières depending on gender and number, and second/seconde/seconds/secondes, again depending on gender and number. In the latter case, the form deuxième is also possible.

Here is a table of the first twenty cardinal numbers in French:

Approximate quantities

French also has more general terms to describe quantity, as the following examples show:

Relative quantities

In language, it is often important to be able to compare quantities, either explicitly or implicitly, either from one quantity to another, or from some quantity to a point of comparison, as the following table illustrates:

As you can see, the important words to retain in dealing with relative quantities are plus, autant and moins.

Proximity to speaker

Think about English sentences like Here is the book./There is the book. In this context, here means that the book is close to the speaker, whereas there means that the book is farther away. French has similar devices based on the forms voici and voilà, as in Voici le livre ('Here is the book') and Voilà le livre ('There is the book').

In the case of noun phrases, French can append the forms -ci and -là combined with ce, cette, ces to the noun to show proximity and distance from the speaker, as the following examples show. Mouse over the forms to see the meaning in each case.

• cette décision-ci
• cette conclusion-là
• ces chaises-ci
• ces stylos-là

Summing up

We have now reached the end of the second chapter. At this point, you should be able to understand and manipulate in French:

1. the relation between determiners and nouns
2. the dimensions of number and gender
3. the use of agreement in number and gender
4. the differences between the basic determiners
5. the use of count and non-count nouns
6. the difference between individuals and classes
7. the use of numbers
8. the representation of approximate and relative quantities
9. the devices used to show proximity to and distance from the speaker

Together, these should permit you to find the noun phrases in a French text, a crucial first step in understanding the text as a whole.