français · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Kitchen tools and tableware
Set a table and choose the tool a simple recipe needs.
Understand the choice
Group tableware separately from cookware, and learn every noun with its gender. Une poêle is a frying pan, while un poêle is a stove—an unusually useful gender contrast.
Core rule: French contracts de + le to du and à + le to au, but object lists keep each noun’s own article.
Notice it in context
Mets le verre, l’assiette et la cuillère sur la table.
Put the glass, the plate, and the spoon on the table.
The command mets governs three specific objects, each introduced by a definite article.
La soupe est dans la grande casserole.
The soup is in the large saucepan.
Dans locates the soup; grande precedes casserole in this common position.
J’ai besoin d’un couteau et d’une poêle.
I need a knife and a frying pan.
Avoir besoin de repeats de before coordinated indefinite nouns.
What to remember
- Verre is a drinking glass and also the material glass; tasse is a handled cup.
- Couteau begins with the pronounced /k/ sound even though French c can vary elsewhere.
Common trap: Do not confuse la poêle with le poêle: the feminine noun is the pan used for frying.