Курсовая работа: The Definite Article with Class Nouns in English and in French

e) a noun can be determined by certain adjectives as premier, dernier, principal, essential, primordial, etc. as well as seul, unique and all the adjectives in superlative degree:

Cristophe se mit à l’abri sous le toit avançant de la première maison . (Roland)

Cristophe hid under the shade of the first house roof.

The use of the definite article in English is accounted for the presence of the ordinal numeral before the noun which has the function of limiting attribute.

f) a noun can be determined by the meaning of the verb:

Je revis la grande cour sèche, le préau, la classe vide. (Fournier)

I saw again a big dry court, a yard, an empty class.

The usage of the definite article in French accounts for the meaning of the verb used in the sentence that implies a repeated action, so the nouns are used with the definite article as they are already known for the speaker. As for English the indefinite article is used as it presupposes the meaning of one.

Judging by the examples presented above we can conclude that the similar cases in the usage of the definite article in the English and the French languages are:

- when it is used as a determinative of a certain object and here are some cases that coincide in both languages:

a) when the context and the situation itself make the noun definite;

b) when the noun is modified by prepositional phrases: of-phrases and other prepositional phrases in English and phrases with the preposition de in French ;

c) when the noun is used with a particularizing attribute;

- when a noun is used in its generic sense pointing out the whole class;

- with the nouns that are unique;

- when a noun is used with ordinal numerals.

As for the differences in the usage of the definite article in French that we do not meet in English they are the followings:

- the main difference that appears between these two languages is that in French the group of class nouns contains the nouns that denote a material whereas in English this type of nouns is classified in a separate group and does not have the same rules in the usage of the definite article.

- the definite article in French can be used with the noun which is determined by the verb denoting a repeated action;

- the definite article is used in French with material nouns, and it is not used in English.

But taking into consideration all the rest cases of the usage of the definite article in English there will appear many more differences as presented above.