Le mouton mange.

Le is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

In French, you usually need an article before a noun much more often than in English. So le mouton is the normal way to say the sheep.

• le = the for a masculine singular noun
• mouton = sheep

Mouton is masculine, which is why it takes le and not la.

So you say:

• le mouton = the sheep
• not la mouton

Grammatical gender in French does not always match biological sex. A noun can be grammatically masculine even if you are not talking about a male animal specifically.

Le only changes to l’ before a vowel sound or a silent h.

Since mouton starts with the consonant sound m, you keep le:

• le mouton
• but l’animal

So le mouton is correct, not l’mouton.

Because mange is the conjugated verb, while manger is the infinitive.

• manger = to eat
• mange = eats / is eating

In this sentence, the subject is le mouton (the sheep), which is third person singular, so the verb manger becomes mange in the present tense.

Mange is in the present tense.

French present tense can often translate into English in more than one way depending on context:

• Le mouton mange. = The sheep eats.
• Le mouton mange. = The sheep is eating.

French uses the simple present in situations where English may use either eats or is eating.

A simple approximation is:

luh moo-tohn mahnzh

A more accurate pronunciation is roughly:

• le → luh
• mouton → moo-tõ (the last part is nasal)
• mange → mahnzh

A few key points:

• In mouton, the ou sounds like oo in food
• The on in mouton is a nasal vowel; you do not pronounce a full English n
• In mange, the g sounds like the s in measure or the zh sound in vision

Yes.

In mouton, the final n is not pronounced as a normal n sound. Instead, it helps create the nasal vowel on.

In mange, the final e is silent in normal pronunciation.

So French spelling and pronunciation do not always match English expectations.

Yes. This sentence uses the basic French word order:

subject + verb

• Le mouton = subject
• mange = verb

So it works just like The sheep eats.

This is one reason the sentence is a nice beginner example: the structure is very straightforward.

Yes, but the meaning changes.

• Le mouton mange. = The sheep is eating / The sheep eats
• Un mouton mange. = A sheep is eating / A sheep eats

So le means a specific sheep or the sheep, while un means a sheep.

Usually, mouton means sheep. In some contexts, it can also refer to mutton (the meat), but in a simple sentence like Le mouton mange, it is clearly understood as the animal.

So for a beginner, the safest understanding here is just:

• mouton = sheep

Because le mouton is singular here: the sheep meaning one sheep.

French verbs change according to the subject, and with a singular subject like le mouton, you use mange.

If the subject were plural, you would write:

• Les moutons mangent. = The sheep eat.

Notice that in the plural:

• le becomes les
• mouton becomes moutons
• mange becomes mangent

Even then, the -ent in mangent is usually silent.