Every French noun has a gender, masculine or feminine, and the article shows it. The definite article ('the') is le (masculine), la (feminine) and les (plural, both genders). Before a vowel or a silent h, le and la become l': l'ordinateur, l'école.

The indefinite article ('a, an, some') is un (masculine), une (feminine) and des (plural). Unlike English, French uses des where English often says nothing: J'ai des livres means 'I have books'.

There is no reliable way to guess a noun's gender, so learn each noun together with its article: le livre, la table. Never learn 'livre' alone. Also remember that le and la both become l' before a vowel, so you lose the gender clue: for those nouns you must remember un or une.