Learn French: Ils font un gâteau et ils ajoutent de la farine. - They are making a cake and they add some flour.

Ils font un gâteau et ils ajoutent de la farine.

They are making a cake and they add some flour.

Breakdown of Ils font un gâteau et ils ajoutent de la farine.

and

ils

they (masculine/mixed)

Questions & Answers about Ils font un gâteau et ils ajoutent de la farine.

Why is it de la farine instead of just farine?

In English, we can just say they add flour, but French requires an article before almost every noun. Because flour is an uncountable substance, we use a partitive article meaning some. Since farine is feminine, we use de la.

Why do we use un for the cake but de la for the flour?

It depends on whether the item is countable. A cake is a single, countable item, so we use the article un for a or one. Flour is an uncountable mass, so we use the partitive article de la to mean an unspecified amount, or some.

Where does the word font come from?

Font is the ils form of the irregular verb faire, which means to do or to make. So ils font translates to they make in this sentence.

Do I pronounce the -ent at the end of ajoutent?

No, you do not. For regular verbs like ajouter (to add), the -ent ending for the ils or elles form is completely silent. You pronounce it exactly the same way as the singular form, ajoute.