"The animal eats."

Translation: L'animal mange.

[brandonfrench]

what does the gender have to do with this?

[predawndance]

I'm going to guess you wrote "Le animal" instead of "L'animal" in which since you wrote the article wrong it tells you "pay attention to gender"

[abikarki]

Male

[IvoryFr96]

What do you mean? Gender has nothing to do with this sentence. Verbs don't change with gender...

[sgraff13]

What is the difference between animaux and animal and when do you use each?

[IvoryFr96]

"Aminaux" is the plural of "animal". Therefore, in a sentence...

"Les animaux mangent"- The animals eat.
"L'animal mange"- The animal eats.

[Patti876]

Why can't you write le animal mange?

[IvoryFr96]

French is a language of reductions. In English, cannot CAN become can't and should not CAN become shouldn't, but in French Le animal MUST become L'animal and le homme MUST become l'homme. It is mandatory in French that if an article such as le/la precedes a noun that begins with a vowel or silent "h", then that article must become l' in front of the noun. Instead of saying "le animal", you would say "l'animal", basically saying "animal" but adding an "l" to the front...understand?

[antknee05]

Thank you L'IvoryFr96, assuming you are masculine, or I guess it would work if you were femanine as well huh? Very helpful!

[Patti876]

Oh, yes, I understand that now. Thank you so much for clarifying. It will be easier to remember with your explanation as well. :)