……
AI Language TutorTry it ↗
“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.).
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning FrenchMaster French — from Marie étudie la leçon to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions
More from this lesson
Questions & Answers about Marie étudie la leçon.
What is the subject of the sentence "Marie étudie la leçon"?
The subject is Marie, who is performing the action in the sentence.
What does the verb étudie mean, and how is it conjugated?
étudie comes from the infinitive étudier, meaning "to study." In this sentence, it is conjugated in the present tense for the third-person singular, matching the subject Marie.
Why is the definite article la used before leçon?
The article la is used because leçon is a feminine noun in French. French articles must agree in gender with the noun they modify, and la means "the" for feminine nouns.
What is the grammatical structure of the sentence?
The sentence follows a standard subject-verb-object (SVO) structure. Marie is the subject, étudie is the verb, and la leçon is the object being studied.
How does knowing grammatical gender help when using articles in French?
Understanding grammatical gender is essential because it dictates the form of the article used with a noun. Since leçon is feminine, the corresponding article is la rather than the masculine le.