french food articles?

Question

if french food says something like: le pain
is that the same as saying un pain meaning its masculine? the bread...

Answer 1

You have unwittingly opened a linguistic can of worms. "Le pain" means "bread", but "un pain" means "a bread roll". If, on the other hand, you'd like me to pass you the bread, you ask me for "du pain" -- i.e. some bread.

"le" the definite masculine article and "la" is the definite feminine article, i.e. "the".

"un" or "une" are the indefinite articles, meaning "a" or "an".

But when you'd like some...bread, meat, fish or cake or whatever, you say "du" (masculine ) or "de la " (feminine) or "des" (plural).

Answer 2

Hello!
I am french, living in France.
When you see "LE" (=The) or "UN" (=A, or one) , then the word following is masculine. (Le pain, le vin).

When you see "LA" or "UNE", the word following is feminine. (La rose, la télévision).

Other case: when the word starts by a "A,E,I,O, or U: no matter if it is feminine or masculine, we use 'L' " . (L'ambulance (f.), l'été(m.), l'intention (f.), l'opportunité (m.), l'univers (m.)....

In know our language is difficult to learn mostly because of these maculine/feminine things!

One more thing: Using maculine or feminine is not linked to the meaning we give to tha word: we don't consider that bread has something more "male" than "une voiture" (f.)(a car).
Nothing to deal with the concepts of masculinity or feminity, that's just the way it is!

Good luck with french!!!