This is a question of the usage of French definite article “le”.

Question

This is a question of the usage of French definite
article “le”. I have encountered following two French sentences:

(1)  Il faut que vous puissiez parler français avant d’aller en France.

(2)  Pour apprandre le français, il faut que vous regardiez des films
français.

As can be seen from these two sentences,
you can notice that the phrase “ …parler français…”in the sentence (1) appears
without the French definite article of “le”, but that the phrase “…apprandre le
français…” in the sentence (2) appears with the French definite article of “le”.

Why doesn’t
the definite article of “le” need in the sentence (1)?  And why does the definite article of “le”
need in the sentence (2)?

Answer

In the first example, "parler français", français is used as an adverb and not as a noun. To see the difference in English you could use the following construction:

Je sais parler français. -- I can speak French. (français is used as an adverb here).Je sais parler le français. -- I can speak the French language (français is a noun here).

Answer

Thank you very much for your kind answer. It's very interesting.