français · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Animals and pets
Describe familiar animals through actions and visible traits.
Understand the choice
Use pets and farm animals inside complete actions: dormir, regarder, manger, courir, and vivre. Several plurals are irregular enough to deserve attention alongside the noun.
Core rule: French direct objects do not take a personal-a marker; articles identify specific animals.
Notice it in context
Le chien dort et le chat regarde l’oiseau.
The dog sleeps and the cat watches the bird.
Le chat acts directly on l’oiseau with no extra preposition.
Nous avons un lapin blanc.
We have a white rabbit.
Blanc agrees with masculine lapin.
Les chevaux mangent et les moutons se reposent.
The horses eat and the sheep rest.
Cheval has irregular plural chevaux; mouton takes regular -s.
What to remember
- Oiseau becomes oiseaux in the plural; the written x is silent.
- Poisson is a living fish or fish as food; French does not require the Spanish pez/pescado split.
Common trap: Do not pronounce the plural -s in les chats or les chiens, except through a possible liaison with a following vowel sound.