giornoblaze

[dusk kernel]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[obsidian moth]

I want to say that, unlike in English, nouns almost always come with an article in French so when you find articles, they should be more often considered the norm than the exception. I say almost because there are some cases where they're not used. The first that comes to mind is when nouns are used as professions, they don't use an article unlike English (je suis bibliothécaire vs I am a librarian) though French makes a difference between « il/elle » and « ce » with the article appearing in the latter (c'est un avocat / c'est une avocate) and not in the former (il est avocat / elle est avocate) .

In my opinion, the most striking difference is the indefinite/partitive articles in that they are optional or dropped in English but mandatory in French.
The indefinite article accompanies a non-specific object as in a general set of books. In English, if the noun is in the singular the indefinite appears (I want a book) but when it's plural the article disappears (I want books). In French, the article is maintained in the singular (je veux un livre) and in the plural (je veux des livres).
The partitive article accompanies in an undefined number of objects more than one. In English, it's entirely optional (I want coffee / I want some coffee) but in French it's mandatory (je veux du café – you can't just say « je veux café »).