Je ferme la porte de la maison.

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Breakdown of Je ferme la porte de la maison.

• la maison: the house
• de: of
• la porte: the door
• fermer: to close

Questions & Answers about Je ferme la porte de la maison.

Why is the article la used for porte?

In French, porte is a feminine noun. Therefore, we use the feminine definite article la instead of the masculine le.

Why is it de la maison instead of du maison?

Because maison is also a feminine noun. If maison were masculine, we would merge de and le into du (e.g., du jardin). But with a feminine noun, de and la remain separate as de la.

Why doesn't je become j' before ferme?

In French, we only drop the e when the next word starts with a vowel or a silent h (for example, j'aime). Since ferme starts with an audible consonant (f), we keep je as it is.

Why is the form ferme used for the verb?

Ferme is the first-person singular present tense of the verb fermer (to close). You use je ferme when talking about yourself in the present.

Do I always need to use the article before porte and maison in French?

Generally, yes. In French, nouns typically need an article unless another rule allows dropping it. Here, la porte and la maison are both definite nouns (specific door and specific house), so we use the definite article la.