francais or le francais?

We don't use the definite article with the names of languages when they are used with the verb "Parler", right?

However, in my text book there is a sentence that goes :Elle parle tres bien le francais. Now, I am not sure if the speaker actually says "le francais", though - it really sounds like he omits the article.

Is this a misprint in the script of the dialog or the article is used correctly because "francais" doesn't immediately follow the verb "parler"?

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 15, 2011 at 4:53pm

The article isn't usually used with language names with parler when you're just straightforwardly referring to somebody speaking that language.

But it's not that it absolutely can't. So whilst you're probably used to saying e.g. "Parlez-vous français?", saying "Parlez-vous le français?" isn't exactly "wrong" per se.

In your sentence, in principle the speaker could have included the "le" or could have missed it out. What you suggest may well be true-- that when the statement is qualified with something like "bien", "souvent" etc, it's maybe a little bit more common to insert the "le". But it's definitely grammatical in principle to either insert or omit it, so if you're fairly sure the speaker didn't include, it could just be that the transcriber accidentally added it because they expected/thought they heard it. (But bear in mind that it would be common for the vowel of "le" not to be pronounced in this case and the "l" tacked on to the end of the same syllable as "bien", i.e. the pronunciation could be quite 'subtle'.)