Animals and the countryside

Wild and farm animals

The course has le chien, le chat, la vache, le cheval, l'oiseau, la souris and le lapin. This lesson adds the ones a French child learns next.

l'oursthe bearthe final -s is silent, singular and plural alike
le lionthe lion
le singethe monkey
l'éléphantthe elephant
la chèvrethe goat
la tortuethe tortoise, the turtleone word for both
l'ânethe donkey
le renardthe fox

l'ours never changes

Nouns already ending in -s take no plural mark: un ours, deux ours. You met this at L80 with le bras.

We saw a bear in the forest.
Nous avons vu un ours dans la forêt.

l'herbe is uncountable

l'herbe is grass as a mass — you say de l'herbe, never une herbe for a lawn. It is feminine, which the elided article hides.

Les vaches mangent de l'herbe.

Seeing an animal do something

This lesson sits right after the perception construction, and it is the natural way to talk about animals:

J'ai vu un renard traverser la rue.

The infinitive follows the noun directly — no que, no relative pronoun.

The fox lives in the forest.
Le renard vit dans la forêt.

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