/yn/
Translation
a, an (feminine)
Word origin
The feminine of un, from Latin una, the feminine of unus ('one').
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- una
- English cognates
- one, unit, unity
Examples
.
I would like a cup of tea with a little milk.
au .
There is a magnificent church in the centre of the town.
J' filante .
I saw a shooting star last night in the sky.
consomme '.
She is looking for a new car that uses less petrol.
, partons .
Once a year, we go on holiday to the mountains.
is the feminine singular indefinite article in French, the counterpart of masculine un. It marks an unspecified single feminine noun: une tasse (a cup), une église (a church). Unlike le and la, indefinite articles in French do not elide before a vowel; une keeps its full form everywhere, but the final e disappears in pronunciation when the next word begins with a vowel, giving a smooth liaison: une étoile sounds like un-étoile.
The plural of both un and une is des, so the masculine/feminine distinction collapses as soon as you go plural. Une also turns up as the feminine of the number "one" in counting (une, deux, trois when the noun being counted is feminine), and in the fixed phrase une fois (once). See the French articles guide for how all four indefinite and definite articles interact.
Where this fits
Used in
Stories
(16)On a le temps
1 min read · Core 1000
Un soir avec Marc
1 min read · Core 1000
Pas la même chose
2 min read · Core 1000
Seule dans la nuit
2 min read · Core 1000
Cuisiner ensemble
3 min read · Core 1000
La fête surprise
3 min read · Core 1000
Le bus manqué
3 min read · Core 1000
Le dernier train de la nuit
3 min read · Core 1000
Le nouveau docteur
3 min read · Core 1000
Le premier jour de travail
3 min read · Core 1000
Un après-midi de pluie
3 min read · Core 1000
Clara trouve sa place
4 min read · Core 1000
Le café du quartier
4 min read · Core 1000
Un voyage difficile
4 min read · Core 1000
Une rencontre au marché
4 min read · Core 1000
Pas devant les clients
5 min read · Core 1000
Grammar articles
(37)French Adjective Agreement: Gender, Number, and Position Rules
French Adjective Position: Default, BAGS, and the Meaning Shifts
French Advanced Grammar (C1-C2): The Constructions That Sound Native
Comparing French Adverbs: plus vite, le mieux, and the Irregulars
French Articles: Definite, Indefinite, Partitive, and the Article English Speakers Drop
Avoiding the Passive in French: on, se and the Active Recast
French Grammar Cheatsheet: The Essentials, One Page
French Cognate Patterns: -tion, -té, -eux, -ment and the Endings That Hand You Thousands of Words
French Comparatives: plus, moins, aussi and the Three Irregulars
French Adjectives and Nouns with à or de
French Concession Clauses: However It Turns Out
French Conditionnel: Polite Requests, Hypothetical 'Would', and the Same Irregular Stems as the Future
dont in Depth: The French de Relative Pronoun
Faire causatif: Having Things Done in French
The French Future Perfect: futur antérieur
quand + Future: The Tense English Refuses
French Imparfait: One Stem, One Set of Endings, One Irregular
Infinitive or Subjunctive: The French Same-Subject Rule
French Intermediate Grammar (B1-B2): The Things That Stop You at the Plateau
French quel and lequel: Which and Which One
French Negation Beyond pas: ne... que, ni... ni, aucun
French Noun Gender: Why Every Noun Is Le or La, and the Endings That Give It Away
French Noun Plurals: Add -s, Say Nothing - the Article Does the Work
The French Present Participle and Gerund (le participe présent et le gérondif)
French Partitives and 'de': du, de la, des and the Negation Rule
Passé Composé vs Imparfait: How to Choose Between the Two French Past Tenses
French Passé Composé: avoir or être + Past Participle and the MRS VANDERTRAMP Set
Sequencing French Past Tenses: Passé Composé, Imparfait and Plus-que-parfait Together
French Relative Pronouns After a Preposition: lequel, auquel, duquel
French si Clauses: The Three Types of Conditional Sentence
The French Subjunctive After Conjunctions
The French Subjunctive After Doubt, Emotion and Opinion
The French Subjunctive in Relative Clauses
Subjunctive or Indicative: How to Choose in French
French Time Expressions: depuis, pendant, il y a and pour
The French Passive Voice (la voix passive)
French Word Order: SVO, the Object Pronoun Inversion, and Six Rules That Cover 90% of Sentences
Add to review queue
Track this word in your spaced-repetition queue and be tested on it at the right interval.
Go to my review queueFrench · Free printables
une: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the French word "une" (a, an (feminine)): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
Free for members
The printable worksheets, infographics and PDFs are free with an account. Start a free week and download as many as you like.
Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 1.