Le chat mange la pomme.

the cat

Breakdown of Le chat mange la pomme.

• la pomme: the apple
• manger: to eat

Questions & Answers about Le chat mange la pomme.

Why is chat masculine in French?

Nouns in French are classified as either masculine or feminine. The word chat (meaning “cat”) happens to be masculine. There isn’t always a clear reason why a particular word is masculine or feminine; it’s often just a convention of the language that learners need to memorize.

Why do we say le chat instead of la chat?

Since chat is a masculine noun, the masculine article le must be used. If the noun were feminine, we would use la instead.

Why is la pomme feminine?

In French, the word pomme (“apple”) is considered a feminine noun, which is why it uses the article la. Again, there isn’t a logical rule for why certain words are feminine or masculine; it’s a matter of memorizing each noun’s gender.

Why does the verb manger appear as mange here?

In the simple present tense, when you conjugate manger with il/elle/on (he/she/one), you drop the r and the final -er changes to -e, creating il/elle/on mange. Since le chat means “the cat,” you treat it like il (“he”) in grammar, so you say le chat mange.

Is there a specific reason we use la pomme instead of something like une pomme?

Yes. Using la pomme (the apple) refers to a specific apple. If you wanted to say “a(n) apple” in a more general sense (not specific), you would use une pomme, which is the indefinite article. The choice between la and une depends on whether you’re talking about a particular apple or apples in general.