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La tortue mange de l'herbe.

La tortue mange de l'herbe.
The tortoise eats grass.
From Lesson 260:Animals and the countryside·French

Breakdown of La tortue mange de l'herbe.

manger
to eat
la tortue
the tortoise
l'herbe
the grass (f)

Questions & Answers about La tortue mange de l'herbe.

Why is it de l'herbe instead of just herbe?
In English, we say 'eats grass' with no article. However, French almost always requires an article before a noun. Because the tortoise is eating an unspecified amount of an uncountable thing (some grass), we use the partitive article. Since herbe starts with a silent h, de la becomes de l'.
Does la tortue mean this is specifically a female tortoise?
Not necessarily. The word tortue is grammatically feminine, meaning it always uses la or une, regardless of the actual biological sex of the animal. If you ever need to specify a male tortoise, you would add the word for male: une tortue mâle.
Could mange also translate to 'is eating' in this sentence?
Yes! French does not have a direct equivalent to the English present continuous tense (is doing). The present tense verb mange translates to both a general habit ('eats') and an action happening right now ('is eating'), depending entirely on the context.
Does the word herbe only mean grass?
While it means grass in this context, it also translates to 'herb' for cooking, such as in les fines herbes. You will also often see it used in the phrase for a weed, which is une mauvaise herbe (literally 'a bad grass').

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