# FR: être roi / être un héros - article



## EpicBacon

Hi guys,

So, early on, I learned that in French, you the article is optional if the noun is followed by "etre".

For example, Je suis le roi des Islandais […].

This is no different from Je suis roi des Islandais […].

However, someone told me that Je suis héros is wrong; he told me that you HAVE to say "Je suis UN héros".

Care to explain, my friends?

Merci!


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## Guibzh

Hi !

I'm not really sure (and your quotation is really weird) but maybe it's because "roi/king" is a function whereas "héros" is not.


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## Oddmania

Hi,

I don't know whether a rule exists about this, but I've given it some thought and it seems to apply only to *jobs *and *status*.

_Je suis médecin_ (job), _
je suis roi_ (job/status), _
je suis ami avec X_ (status), 
_je suis amant avec Y_ (status), 
_je suis père / mère_ (status).

You could actually say _Je suis héros_, but that would sound like this is your job. I could just picture a young kid saying _"Plus tard, je voudrais être super-héros"_ (just as well as _Je veux être astronaute / aventurier / archéologue_).


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## EpicBacon

So, would SpiderMan say "Je suis héros" whereas the man who rescued the endangered species of unicorn fish would say "Je suis un héros"?

Guibzh said my French is weird. Did I make an error? Thanks.


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## Guibzh

> So, would SpiderMan say "Je suis héros"



No he wouldn't say that because "héros" is not really a job, a status or a function. In Oddmania's exemple, it can be accepted because kids can think "héros" is a job.



> Guibzh said my French is weird. Did I make an error?



Grammaticaly you didn't, but your quote doesn't make any sense. Didn't you know ?


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## AmaryllisBunny

The grammar behind this is, that in French professions take on an adjective quality.

Je suis roi, je suis professeur, je suis interprète, je suis chômeur. However, if any specifiactions are made... Then one may say, Je suis le professeur de français à l'Université de ... (meaning you are the professor maybe the only one?)

The article is not optional, it is wrong (unless it is le/la for specificity).


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## Guibzh

> The grammar behind this is, that in French professions take on an adjective quality.



It's a good explanation, but, perhaps, to say "in French professions can take on an adjective quality" would be more accurate.


Cause, I don't agree with that :


> The article is not optional, it is wrong (unless it is le/la for specificity).



For exemple : "je suis un interprète/médecin/professeur etc..."  is ok.


Nonetheless, I think you're right about "le/la/les".


PS : Hope my english is correct, if it is not don't hesitate to mention it.


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## Maître Capello

See also:
FR: être/devenir (un/une) + profession - article ?
FR: être/devenir (un) esclave - article


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## AmaryllisBunny

Guibzh said:


> "je suis un interprète/médecin/professeur etc..."  is ok.



Yes "un/une" can be correct IF there is some sort of precision made. In French, professions take on an adjective quality. Je suis professeur but Je suis un professeur de grammaire et stylistique à l'Université des lapins et des lapereaux.


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## EpicBacon

Guibzh said:


> No he wouldn't say that because "héros" is not really a job, a status or a function. In Oddmania's exemple, it can be accepted because kids can think "héros" is a job.



I'd say SpiderMan certainly would consider hero to be his status; he labels himself as such. Are you sure he wouldn't say "Je suis héros." ?


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## Lacuzon

Bonjour,

To me, he could.


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## EpicBacon

Hmm.. I'm quite confused. One native French speaker says SpiderMan's saying of "Je suis héros" is invalid and another one says it is wrong.


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## Lacuzon

Well, to me, Spiderman probably consider being a hero as a status. So he could say Je suis héros as a baker would say Je suis boulanger.


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## Guibzh

> Yes "un/une" can be correct IF there is some sort of precision made.



Not  necessarily, usually you can say : "je suis un médecin." or, better  "je suis juste un médecin", if you want to insist on your identity  rather than insisting on your quality.
But I agree, if you doubt, give up the article, it will always be ok.



> Well, to me, Spiderman probably consider being a hero as a status. So he  could say Je suis héros as a baker would say Je suis boulanger.



Ok, we could imagine anything like that (perhaps  with "super héros" rather than "héros"), but, in fact, you will never  read it in spidey's comic books french version. Or maybe as a joke.


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## Reynald

AmaryllisBunny said:


> Yes "un/une" can be correct IF there is some sort of precision made. In French, professions take on an adjective quality. Je suis professeur but Je suis un professeur de grammaire et stylistique à l'Université des lapins et des lapereaux.


Et encore ! "Je suis un professeur de grammaire et de stylistique à l'Université des lapins et des lapereaux" est aussi la construction que j'utiliserais, celle qui me paraît la seule correcte.
S'il fallait absolument une construction avec l'article, je dirais "Je suis un professeur de grammaire contesté", "Je suis un professeur exigeant".

Et pour revenir à la question #1, 


> However, someone told me that Je suis héros is wrong; he told me that you HAVE to say "Je suis UN héros".


je dirais à l'enfant : "Tu *dois* dire _je suis *un* héros_" !


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## Oddmania

EpicBacon said:


> I'd say SpiderMan certainly would consider hero to be his status; he labels himself as such. Are you sure he wouldn't say "Je suis héros." ?



I'm glad you mentioned Spiderman, because I actually almost used Superman as an example of someone who might say _Je suis héros_, but I had second thoughts. The thing is, _Je suis héros_ is a very childish thing to say, because you're turning a quality / a vertue / a positive feature into a job. It also goes for _Je suis aventurier_, because "adventurer" isn't a full-time job (it's not even a job).


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## EpicBacon

Oddmania said:


> I'm glad you mentioned Spiderman, because I actually almost used Superman as an example of someone who might say _Je suis héros_, but I had second thoughts. The thing is, _Je suis héros_ is a very childish thing to say, because you're turning a quality / a vertue / a positive feature into a job. It also goes for _Je suis aventurier_, because "adventurer" isn't a full-time job (it's not even a job).



Would you find "Je suis super-héros" as something childish, too?

Also, I find results on Google for "Je suis humain", but I find NOTHING for "Je suis être humain"; it seems like you have to add "un" here. I don't understand this, either.


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## Oddmania

EpicBacon said:


> Would you find "Je suis super-héros" as something childish, too?



Equally childish, yes. Another awkward thing to say would be _Il est savant-fou_, for instance (un savant fou = "a mad doctor / mad scientist"). I can only think of two occasions where it would be acceptable: *1.* a child saying _Je veux être_ + a job (with the "job" being whatever a child may fancy as a job, including a mad doctor), and *2.* a gamer playing an RPG and saying that his character's class / job is "savant-fou" :_ Je suis savant-fou, Je suis sorcier, Je suis soldat,_ etc.



EpicBacon said:


> Also, I find results on Google for "Je suis humain", but I find NOTHING  for "Je suis être humain"; it seems like you have to add "un" here. I  don't understand this, either.



With an adjective, no article is required: _humain _can be an adjective, so you can say _Je suis humain_ (just as you might say _Je suis beau, je suis blond_, etc.)
On the other hand, an article is needed if you're using a noun. If you're using the word _humain _as a noun, you should say _Je suis *un *humain_ (the same thing happens in English: _I'm human_ [adjective] and _I'm *a *human_ [noun] are both equally correct).

_"Être human"_ (human being) is a nominal group, so it requires an article : _Je suis un être humain_.

I strongly recommend you to forget about the rule saying that no article is needed when the verb is _être_. This is highly misleading. Most of the times, when an article is needed in English, it's needed in French too: _I'm a hero, I'm a man, I'm a friend of John's_, etc.

The most common exception is *jobs*: the article is optional in French because jobs are pretty much considered as adjectives. So the most common way to translate _I'm a doctor_ is _Je suis médecin._ 

Note that the article is optional with jobs, but it's not incorrect to use it. The difference between _Je suis médecin _and _Je suis *un *médecin_ is the same as the difference between _I'm human _and _I'm a human _in English, or_ I'm American _and _I'm an American_. In other words, leaving out the article is more common, but adding it is required if you wish to add something else: _I'm *an* ordinary human_ ("Je suis un humain ordinaire").


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## EpicBacon

So why is it that in the French dubbing of the Disney movie Pocahontas, the protagonist sings the lyric "Je suis fille des torrents, soeur des rivières" in the song _L'air Du Vent_?


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## Oddmania

EpicBacon said:


> So why is it that in the French dubbing of the Disney movie Pocahontas, the protagonist sings the lyric "Je suis fille des torrents, soeur des rivières" in the song _L'air Du Vent_?



This is a poetic turn of phrase. You may find this paragraph («* 139.* _Être _+ nom sans article ») helpful.



> [...] Cette construction peut s'étendre à des caractérisations abstraites :
> 
> - La musique est source de joie → _"être source de joie"_ est une propriété de la musique.
> - La musique est une source de joie → la musique fait partie des choses qui sont sources de joie.



You could come across literally anything in songs: _Je suis héros de guerre, je suis martyr, _etc. This would sound fine in a song, but no one would say that in actual practice.


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