[Solatar]

I'm working on something for my French I class (yeah..crappy American system, start a foreign language in highschool...I'm jealous of all you Europeans), and I'm having a little confusion on articles and when to use them (our French teacher is **** and we don't apply anything).

It's computer related, so say I wanted to put "program files". I stuck in "dossiers de programme". Do I need to put an article in front of that? Same with little folder names like, "vieux dossiers", "musique" and names of programs, do these need articles as well? If they do, do I use a definite or indefinite article.

If I'm already doing something insanely wrong/stupid, I'd like to know as well please.

Thanks.

[Nuclear1]

I'm not sure, but I would say just use them anyway.

Anyone who's a little better qualified/native French speaker can correct me.

[Solatar]

I went ahead and stuck them in there, but I still have no idea whether it's "un dossiers de programme" or "des dossiers de programme".

[Stunaep]

generally the french grammatical rules are very similar to english rules (mostly since the better part of english, which isn't based on anglo-saxon, is based on french), so I'd say the same rules apply here. So if you say Program Files in english (and not The Program Files), then in french it'd be "Dossiers de programme" as well. The same with folder names, without articles.

The only major difference in the usage of articles in French would be that french also has a plural indefinite article ('des'), while English does not have a plural version of 'a'.  So if in english it would go like "A Program File -> Program Files", then in french it'd be "Un dossier de programme -> Des dossiers de programme".

Moral of the story: Learn estonian. We have no articles.

Nico, feel free to contradict everything I say.

[Stunaep]

Originally posted by Solatar
I went ahead and stuck them in there, but I still have no idea whether it's "un dossiers de programme" or "des dossiers de programme".

Un and une are singular articles. Never use them if the word itself is in plural. Then it's 'des'.

Thinking of the program files thing, if you're using it as a folder name (e.g. "Open the folder named "Program Files"), then you won't want to use an article "Ouvre le cahier nommé "dossiers de programme". If you're using it in a construction such as "Program files are files used by programs to process data", then you'd have to use a definite article "Les dossiers de programme sont dossiers utilisée par les programmes pour analyser information"

[Solatar]

I think you're right Stu, I'm changing my mind yet again and going with that.

[Genryu]

Just one thing : it'd folder that translates into dossier. File translates into fichier. For the rest : un dossier -> des dossiers, un fichier -> des fichiers. If you give an exemple : the Program Files folder -> le dossier de fichiers de programme(s). I'd add the s to programme since it's implied that it's isn't used by only one program.

[Solatar]

But the folder titled "Program Files" wouldn't be titled "le dossier de fichiers de programmes" would it?