Learn French: Nous sommes des étudiants.

In French, you almost never use a noun without a little word in front of it (like a, the, or some). While English simply drops the article to say "students", French uses the plural indefinite article des. It might help to think of it as saying "We are some students."

How do we make the word étudiant plural in French?

Just like in English, you add an -s to the end of the singular word étudiant to make it étudiants. This is the standard rule for making regular nouns plural in French. However, unlike in English, this plural -s at the end of the word is completely silent.

Do I pronounce the "s" in des étudiants?

Yes and no! The -s on des is normally silent, but because étudiants starts with a vowel (é), that -s "wakes up" and makes a "z" sound connecting the two words together (sounding like "dez-ay-too-dee-ahn"). This connection is called a liaison. The -s at the very end of étudiants, however, stays silent.

Does étudiants mean male students or female students?