A1 · The articles
Partitive article: du, de la
In front of anything you cannot count.
At a glance
- Remember
- Liking takes le, eating takes du.
- Form
- du painbread (masculine)
- Signal words
- manger
- boire
- acheter
- un peu de
- beaucoup de
- Trap
- Wrong:Je mange le pain et je bois eau.Right:Je mange du pain et je bois de l’eau.
Your turn
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The form
The forms and what they mean
Each row gives the meaning first, then the form in French.
| bread (masculine) | du pain |
| meat (feminine) | de la viande |
| water (before a vowel) | de l’eau |
| spinach (plural) | des épinards |
| no bread | pas de pain |
| a lot of bread | beaucoup de pain |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is aboutThe word that calls for it
An unspecified amount takes the partitive article.
Je bois du café.I drink coffee.
After an expression of quantity only de remains.
Un peu de sucre, s’il vous plaît.A little sugar, please.
After a negative only de remains.
Je ne bois pas de café.I do not drink coffee.
After aimer it is the definite article, not the partitive.
J’aime le café, mais je bois du thé.I like coffee, but I drink tea.
Example sentences
Je mange de la salade tous les jours.I eat salad every day.
Tu veux de l’eau ?Do you want some water?
Il achète du fromage au marché.He buys cheese at the market.
Il n’y a plus de lait.There is no milk left.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The difference between le and du is the difference between «at all» and «some of it». J'aime le poisson means fish is something I like. Je mange du poisson means I am eating some. English says «I like fish» and «I eat fish» with the same bare noun, so the sentence gives no clue — look at the verb instead.
The full explanation
Read it all · about 1 min
What cannot be counted gets an article of its own in French: du pain, de la viande, de l'eau, des épinards. It says «some of it, an unspecified amount».
English has a word for this — «some» — and treats it as optional. «I eat bread» and «I eat some bread» are both English, and the first is the ordinary one. In French the second pattern is the ordinary one and the first does not exist: Je mange du pain. There is no way to say it with the noun on its own.
After a negative and after an expression of quantity it shrinks to de: pas de pain, beaucoup de pain. So «a lot of bread» has one de, not two.
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The verbs on this page, in every form: avoir · vouloir · manger · plaire · acheter · aimer