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“How does grammatical gender work in French?”
Every French noun is either masculine or feminine, and this affects the articles and adjectives used with it. "Le" is used with masculine nouns and "la" with feminine ones. Adjectives also change form to match — for example, "petit" (masc.) becomes "petite" (fem.).
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Questions & Answers about La pomme est rouge.
Why is the article la used instead of le?
In French, nouns are classified as either masculine or feminine. The word pomme is a feminine noun, so it takes the feminine definite article la. If it were a masculine noun, we would use le instead.
Why does the adjective rouge not have a different ending for the feminine form?
Unlike some French adjectives that change their ending based on gender (for example, blanc becomes blanche in the feminine form), rouge has the same spelling for both masculine and feminine singular. In the plural, you would add an s to make it rouges, but as a singular feminine adjective, it remains rouge.
Can rouge also be used for something that is plural?
Yes, if you’re talking about multiple red apples, for instance, you would say Les pommes sont rouges. Notice that rouge takes an s in the plural form, matching the plural noun pommes.
How is pomme pronounced?
The word pomme is pronounced roughly like pum in English, with a shorter vowel sound. The final e is typically not pronounced forcefully in French, making the word sound like one syllable.
Do I always need to use an article before a noun in French?
In most cases, yes. French generally requires an article (definite, indefinite, or partitive) before nouns, unlike English where we can omit them. That’s why you’ll see La pomme instead of just Pomme in a sentence.