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I thought [pronoun] + [être] could never be followed by an article:

  • ✅ je suis dentiste ❌ je suis un dentiste
  • ✅ elle est sénégalaise ❌ elle est une Sénégalaise

but I’ve been been told you can say « tu es un bon ami », which has absolutely thrown me off and I cannot come up with a comprehensive mental model that accommodates this possibility. What even are the rules? I feel completely lost.

  1. What’s the difference between « tu es un bon ami » and « elle est une bonne amie » that makes the former okay and the latter not? They’re both [pronoun] + [être] + [article] + [noun].
  2. I thought nationalities, jobs, etc. appeared as [pronoun] + [être] + [title WITHOUT article]? What’s with « c’est un boulanger »?
  3. All in all, if I had a sentence I wanted to translate into French, what questions should I ask myself to determine what the right pronoun is, and whether to include an article or not?
Segorian
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potato
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  • Both "je suis un dentiste" and "je suis une Sénégalaise" seem perfectly acceptable to me (the version without article sounds posher but not necessarily more common in everyday speech, at least where I live). It's only in the third person that they sound off, probably because the version with "c'est" exists and would be used over "il est" or "elle est" in almost all contexts except formal writing – Eau qui dort Dec 20 '23 at 16:26
  • Related: https://french.stackexchange.com/q/6317/1893 – livresque Dec 23 '23 at 01:11

2 Answers2

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You write "[pronoun] + [être] could never be followed by an article". That's too simplified to be applied like that.
Je suis dentiste but je suis un bon dentiste (not mandatory to have the indefinite article but we would usually have it).
When you say je suis sénégalaise, sénégalaise is definitely an adjective, not a noun. When you say je suis dentiste/je suis boulanger the profession here works as an adjective and we do not have an article.

From what you are writing it seems you are confused about different sorts of pronouns. Tu es un bon ami and tu es une bonne amie are both perfectly fine. So are c'est un bon ami and c'est une bonne amie.
When you write that tu es un bon ami and elle est une bonne amie are both [pronoun] + [être] + [article] + [noun] you are missing an essential point: tu is a 2nd person and il/elle is a 3rd person. And French has the gallicism c'est (ce sont) where the demonstrative pronoun ce (c') can in lots of cases replace the 3rd person subject personal pronouns.
I would not say that elle est une bonne amie is wrong, it is just that it is not usual to say it like that, if I read it I know at once the person writing it is not a French native. It is only with nationalities, professions and religions that using the personal pronoun or the demonstrative pronoun makes no difference at all.

And using the personal pronouns (il(s), elle(s)) or the demonstrative pronoun, makes a difference in construction:

  • c’est / ce sont + (un/une/de) + noun
  • il / elle est (no article) + noun

Edit: To answer the questions in the comments: "why is it une dentiste canadienne/politicienne sénégalaise but professeur d’histoire/étudiante en droit ?

Je suis dentiste, je suis professeur, elle est professeure d'histoire, elle est étudiante en droit etc...: the info you want to give is the just about the job/occupation. When you say je suis une dentiste canadienne, the info you want to give is that you're not just any dentiste, you're canadienne; je suis une étudiante en droit allemande → the info you want to give is that you're not just any étudiante en droit, you're allemande (one particular student among all law students). When you say je suis étudiante en droit à Paris II, Paris II is not a personal info, it just tells about the place of study. Je suis une étudiante allemande qui suit des cours à Paris II (Je suis une étudiante allemande et je suis des cours à Paris II).

None
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  • would i be correct in thinking that the rules then are as shown here? – potato Dec 25 '23 at 11:18
  • @Min that's correct. – None Dec 26 '23 at 08:21
  • what about these? – potato Dec 26 '23 at 10:36
  • @Min I'd rather say: je suis une dentiste canadienne, c'est une politicienne sénégalaise – None Dec 26 '23 at 10:48
  • do you mind moving the convo over to: https://french.stackexchange.com/q/54040/33269 – i’d appreciate it if you could please elaborate why it’s ‘une dentiste canadienne/politicienne sénégalaise’ but ‘professeur d’histoire/étudiantes en droit’ is fine in more detail please? – potato Dec 26 '23 at 10:54
  • @Min It's still the same question. Je suis dentiste, je suis professeur, elle est dentiste, elle est professeur etc... You add the article when you use an adjective to define the job. Je suis une dentiste canadienne, c'est une politicienne sénégalaise. When you say je suis professeur d'histoire, je suis étudiante en droit, the job/occupation is professeur d'histoire, étudiante en droit, no adjective. Compare with je suis une professeur d'histoire canadienne, je suis une étudiante en droit allemande. – None Dec 26 '23 at 12:03
  • so an additional adjective is what causes there to be an article? so no article in « elle est étudiante en droit à l’université de [name] », but as soon as i add an adjective it should be « c’est une* bonne étudiante en droit à l’université de [name]* »? – potato Dec 26 '23 at 12:16
  • @Min Please see answer above: with c'est you always have the indefinite article. je suis une étudiante en droit → the info you want to give is the occupation. je suis une étudiante en droit allemande → the info you want to give that you're not just any étudiante en droit, you're allemande (one particular student among all law students) – None Dec 26 '23 at 13:55
  • still confused exactly when i can no longer stick to [pronoun] + [être] + [adjectival without* an article*] and HAVE to switch to [je/tu/vous] + [être] + *un(e)* + [NP] or c’est/ce sont + *un(e)* + [NP]. is ‘a law student at X university’ generic enough to appear without un(e) or not? where exactly do you draw the line? – potato Dec 26 '23 at 14:13
  • a student, a law student, a law student at X uni, a law student at X uni from Germany, a smart law student at X uni from Germany… a farmer, a chicken farmer, a free-range chicken farmer, … when does it stop being generic and start being specific enough to warrant the definite article? – potato Dec 26 '23 at 14:16
  • @Min All those can't compare and it goes way beyond the French language. In "a free-range chicken farmer", free-range applies to the chicken, not to the farmer! Plus words are used in complete sentences, as said before the grammatical subject matters. // "A farmer" → un fermier but "a chicken farmer" → un éleveur de poulets, but I expect most of them would say j'élève des poulets when defining their job. – None Dec 26 '23 at 14:50
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To my understanding:

  • The article is never wrong, just less idiomatic when it's not necessary. The article is usually heard as wrong in the case of a subject clitic pronoun and an unmodified attribute, if I read the comments right.

  • Most modification of the noun triggers needing the article. I say "most" because I have a vague sense that if you had a compound noun or a noun + adjective of a certain class (e.g. politicienne sénégalaise) it might still be acceptable to drop the article.

  • With "ce" instead of a regular subject pronoun the article is required. C'est un dentiste.

Luke Sawczak
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    Hmmm elle est une Sénégalaise ne se dit pas, à mon avis. – Frank Dec 19 '23 at 14:45
  • @Frank That is, outright wrong, not just less than ideal? – Luke Sawczak Dec 19 '23 at 15:05
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    I think so. Curiously, c'est une Sénégalaise seems to work, but not elle est une Sénégalaise. Similarly, if we tried il est un Français, it feels like there is a French man... and one is waiting for details or a story, maybe. I'd be curious to hear how other native French speaker feel here. – Frank Dec 19 '23 at 15:26
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    That's because elle est entails a predicative adjective (adjectif attribut), therefore elle est sénégalaise (adjective with lower case). But c'est une Sénégalaise (noun with upper case) because after c'est we have a noun. In une politicienne sénégalaise the noun is politicienne and sénégalaise is the attribute adjective (adjectif épithète) that defines politicienne. – None Dec 19 '23 at 16:25
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    @None Yeap, completely agreed :-) – Frank Dec 19 '23 at 17:16
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    Without a liaison between elle and est, I think the following sentence is just fine: Lui est un Français de Paris, elle est une Sénégalaise de Dakar. Of course, the second est can be dropped. – jlliagre Dec 19 '23 at 21:29
  • @jlliagre Mais bon, à l'oral, on aurait tendance à dire lui, c'est un Français de Paris, et elle une Sénégalaise de Dakar, à mon avis. – Frank Dec 19 '23 at 22:53
  • @Frank Oui, bien sûr. Ce que je voulais dire, c'est que Lui est un Français ne choque pas l'oreille comme le fait Il est un français et qu'un elle tonique peut passer dans le même contexte. Ce n'est pas le cas de moi ou toi qui imposent la reprise d'un pronom atone : *Moi suis un Français, toi es un Belge* -> Moi, je suis un Français, toi, tu es un Belge. – jlliagre Dec 19 '23 at 23:24