L'habitant du village parle avec Marie.

In French, when the masculine singular article le comes before a word that begins with a vowel or a silent h, it contracts to l'.

• le
  • habitant → l'habitant

This is called élision and is done to make pronunciation smoother. It happens with le, la, and je, me, te, etc.:

• le homme → l'homme
• la amie → l'amie
• je aime → j'aime

So l'habitant still means the inhabitant, but it sounds more natural.

Approximate pronunciation (in English-friendly terms):

• L'habitant → la-bi-tan

  • h is silent: you don’t hear it.
  • Final -t in habitant is not pronounced.

• du → dy (like dew but with rounded lips)

• village → vee-lazh

  • Final -e is silent.
  • -ge sounds like the s in measure or vision.

Together, roughly: la-bi-tan dy vee-lazh.

There is no liaison between habitant and du; you don’t link a final t sound, because the t is not pronounced.

Du here means of the and shows possession or origin, like the inhabitant of the village.

It’s a contraction of:

• de
  • le → du

So:

• l'habitant de le village (not allowed)
  becomes
• l'habitant du village (correct)

You use du before a masculine singular noun:

• le village → du village (of the village)
• le pays → du pays (of the country)

For a feminine noun, you use de la:

• la ville → de la ville (of the city)

Before a vowel or silent h: de l'

• l’école → de l’école (of the school)

Marie is a proper name, like Mary in English. In French, proper first names normally do not take an article:

• Je parle avec Marie. → I’m talking with Marie.
• Je vois Paul. → I see Paul.

You might see articles with names in some dialects or informal, familiar speech (e.g. la Marie in some regions), but in standard French you simply say Marie, no la.

Parle is the 3rd person singular form of the verb parler (to speak) in the present tense. It matches the subject L'habitant du village (he).

Present tense of parler:

• je parle – I speak
• tu parles – you speak (singular, informal)
• il / elle / on parle – he / she / one speaks
• nous parlons – we speak
• vous parlez – you speak (plural or formal)

• ils / elles parlent – they speak

• parler is the infinitive (to speak).
• parles goes with tu.
• parlent goes with ils / elles.

Since L'habitant du village is he, you must use parle.

Yes, that is perfectly correct, and it’s very natural French.

• L'habitant du village parle avec Marie.
  Focus a bit more on the inhabitant as the subject.

• Marie parle avec l'habitant du village.
  Focus a bit more on Marie as the subject.

The meaning is essentially the same (they are talking with each other), but you are choosing a different subject to highlight. French word order for a simple sentence is usually Subject – Verb – Rest. You just change which noun phrase is in subject position.

Both can be used when talking about speaking to someone, but there’s a nuance:

• parler à quelqu’un – to talk to someone

  • Focus on the direction: you are speaking to them.
  • L'habitant du village parle à Marie. – The villager talks to Marie.

• parler avec quelqu’un – to talk with someone

  • Emphasizes interaction: a conversation.
  • L'habitant du village parle avec Marie. – The villager talks with Marie (they’re having a conversation).

In everyday speech, both are common; parler avec often suggests more of an exchange rather than a one-way message.

• habitant is a noun: it means inhabitant, resident, someone who lives in a place.
• habiter is a verb: it means to live (to reside somewhere).

Examples:

• C’est un habitant du village. – He is an inhabitant of the village.
• J’habite à Paris. – I live in Paris.

So L'habitant du village = The person who lives in the village.

By default, habitant is masculine: un habitant.

The feminine form is habitante:

• un habitant – a (male) inhabitant
• une habitante – a (female) inhabitant

In your sentence:

• L'habitant du village parle avec Marie.
  Grammatically, this is masculine singular (because of l’habitant).

To make it clearly feminine, you’d say:

• L’habitante du village parle avec Marie. – The (female) inhabitant of the village is talking with Marie.

In French, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine or feminine. Village happens to be masculine:

• le village – the village
• du village – of the village

Unfortunately, gender is not always logical and must often be memorized. Some endings give clues, but they’re not 100% reliable. For -age nouns:

• Often masculine: le village, le garage, le fromage.
• A few are feminine: la plage, la page, la cage, l’image, la rage, la nage.

Best strategy: always learn nouns with their article:

• le village (m.)
• la ville (f.)

French capitalization rules are similar to English in this case:

• Marie is a proper name, so it’s capitalized.
• village is a common noun, so it’s not capitalized unless it starts the sentence.

So you write:

• L'habitant du village parle avec Marie.
  but if the sentence started with village in another context, it would be:
• Le village est petit. – The village is small.

It depends on the context:

1. In a full sentence as a subject, you normally need an article or another determiner:

   • L'habitant du village parle avec Marie. – Correct.
   • Habitant du village parle avec Marie. – Feels incomplete/wrong in standard French.

2. Without an article, habitant du village can appear:

   • In titles, headlines, labels:
     
     • Habitant du village recherché – Village inhabitant wanted.
   • After certain prepositions or as bare labels.

But when it’s the main subject of a normal sentence, use an article: L'habitant du village…, Un habitant du village…, Cet habitant du village…, etc.