1 – The French Partitive Articles 3 – More About Translating “Some” In French

When you are talking about a portion of an item In English, the word “some” is used for unspecified
(food), or something that cannot be quantified (e.g. quantity (I would like some milk) but also as a
qualities, like patience), use a partitive article: derogatory adjective (he went home with some girl).

1. du (+ masculine word) - In French, you would never say “il est rentré
2. de la (+ feminine word), chez lui avec de la fille”…He didn’t go home
3. de l’ (followed by a vowel), with an unspecified quantity of a girl!! So be
4. des (+ plural word). careful, translation doesn’t always work.

2 – Du, De La, De L’, Des = Unspecified Quantity Same thing goes with one of my example “elle a des
amis formidables”.
The French partitive articles express a notion of
quantity: a vague one, a non-specific one. - In English, if you say “she has some great
friends” you’d be strongly implying that her
- Important: these articles are often used after other friends are not so great…
the verbs vouloir (“Je voudrais du vin”)
or avoir (“J’ai des chats”) and with food. - So here, we’d use an article when in English
you’d probably use nothing “she has great
- It’s the notion of “some” in English, but we friends”.
don’t always use the word “some”. Often, we
use nothing at all. - You need to use the French logic :”she has an
“unspecified quantity plural” great friends” =
In French, you need to “accompany” your word with “elle a des amis formidables
something.
Some food items are usually referred to as singular in
1. Je voudrais de l’eau, s’il vous plait. (some English, although they are really plural.
water, maybe a glass, or maybe a bottle…)
- Like rice. There are many grains of rice, but
2. Le professeur a de la patience. (patience ; you it’s rare that you are counting them one by
are not saying how much patience the teacher has, one…
just that he/she has some)
- So rice is considered as a single ingredient,
3. Voici du gâteau. (some of it, not the whole singular masculine “le riz”.
cake)
- If you need to count each grain, then you’d
To describe an unspecified plural quantity, use “des” use the expression “grain de riz” – Il y a 3
(both feminine and masculine) grains de riz sur la table. But, more often,
you’d say something like “J’achète du riz” ( I
- This tells you there is more than one item, but buy some rice, or I buy rice).
again, it’s a vague plural quantity (could be 2,
could be 10,000 or more)… 4 – French Indefinite Articles And Numbers

- This “des” usually applies to whole items, that When you are talking about a whole item, use:
you could count, but decided not to.
1. un (+ masculine word)
1. J’ai des Euros. (more than one, but I am not 2. une (+ feminine word).
telling exactly how many)
Remark: the indefinite article ‘a, an’, and the cardinal
2. Je vais acheter des pommes. (I’m going to buy number ‘one’ have the same translation in French.
apples. In English, we’d probably won’t use an
article there. Maybe some, but not necessarily. In 1. Voici une fille. (a girl, one girl)
French, you need to use “des”) 2. Donne-moi une pomme. (an apple, one apple)
3. J’ai un Euro. (an Euro, one Euro)
3. Elle a des amies formidables (she has (some) 4. Je cherche un beau livre. (a pretty book)
great friends) 5. J’achète une robe bleue. (a blue dress)

If you have more than one, then you’d use numbers :

2, 3, 10… with numbers, you don’t use any articles. J’ai
trois chats. I have three cats.
5 – More Specific Quantity = Expressions Of
Quantity + De Or D’
 And do not forget all the adverbs, that also specify
This is usually the part that confuses students. quantities :
Even if it’s not an article per se, I think it should be
studied in this lesson since this is really the key to 1. Un peu de fromage (a bit of cheese)
understanding it all. 2. Beaucoup de lait (a lot of milk).
3. Quelques morceaux de lards (a few pieces of
When you use an expression of quantity (a kilo of…, a bacon).
bottle of…, a little bit of…) you are expressing a very
specific quantity. Note that in spoken French, this “de” is very much
glided, so almost silent (just to make things more
- And these are followed by the preposition de difficult!)
or d’ (+ vowel or h), meaning “of”, exactly
like in English. - Un plateau de fromages,
- un peu de raisin,
- You don’t say “a bottle some water”. You say - un verre et une bouteille de vin
“a bottle of water”.
NOTE: Expressions of quantities are followed
- It’s the same in French: we say: “Une bouteille by “de”.
d’eau” (of water), not “une bouteille de l’eau”(
de l’ = some). 7 – Specific Quantity Is Zero, None = Pas + De Or D’

Unfortunately, this “de” or “d'” looks a lot like “de l’, Following the same logic, PAS is a specified quantity ;
du, des etc…” hence the confusion. none.

So, in French, after an expression of quantity, we use - So pas is also followed by the preposition de
“de” or “d'” (+ word starting with a vowel). or d’.

- Voulez-vous de l’eau (non specific) - (Except after the verb “être” when the article
- Je voudrais un verre d’eau (specific) doesn’t change).

6 – Common French Expressions Of Quantity 1. J’ai des amis BUT Je n’ai pas d’amis. (I don’t
have any friends)
Of course, quantity are going to be very common with
food items. So you are likely to use these constructions 2. Elle a beaucoup de patience BUT Elle n’a pas
a lot, since the French are always talking about food! de patience. (She has no patience)

1. Un verre de vin (a glass OF wine, NOT DU, 3.  Il y a 5 livres BUT Il n’y a pas de livre. (There
you do not say “a glass some wine”) is no book)

2. Une bouteille de champagne (a bottle of BUT: C’est un ami, ce n’est pas un ami.
champagne)
8 – French Partitive And Indefinite Article Recap
3. Une carafe d’eau (a pitcher of water – de
becomes d’ + vowel) Some things are easy to quantify: one apple. It’s a
whole apple. You usually buy, eat, need one, 2, 3
4. Un litre de jus de pomme (a liter of apple apples…
juice)
But you may decide to be vague, and say “des
5. Une assiette de charcuterie (a plate of cold pommes” = more than one, but I don’t know exactly
cuts) how many.

6. Un kilo de pommes de terre (a kilo of Now, some things are less easily quantifiable… You
potatoes) don’t buy “one rice”. You buy either “one kilo of rice”
(a kilo of, an expression of quantity), or “some rice”
7. Une botte de carottes (a bunch of carrots) (unspecified quantity of an item which is not easily
quantifiable).
8. Une barquette de fraises (a box of
strawberries) So you need to ask yourself Am I talking about:

9. Une part de tarte (a slice of pie). 1. a very specific quantity (a number, or an

expression of quantity : une pomme, 5 pommes,
un kilo de pommes, une bouteille de vin).
2. an unspecified quantity of an item (du vin), or 6_ je voudrais ____ part ____ gâteau s’il vous plaît (a
an unspecified quantity of something that is not slice of cake).
easily quantifiable (du riz, de la patience)
7- Non merci, je ne veux pas____ gâteau.
3. more than one of an item, but a vague plural
quantity (des pommes) 8- Je voudrais ____ eau, s’il vous plaît.

4.  no item at all (pas de pomme) 9- Tu as ____ courage.

Negative expressions with partitive articles 10- Achète ____ oranges !

In French, you use word pairs like ne … 11- Voici ____ glace à la vanille.
pas (meaning not) and ne … jamais (meaning never) to
say that something is not happening or not true. Answers : 1- de, 2- de, 3- une, 4- un, 5- du, 6- une…de, 7-
de, 8- de l’, 9- du, 10- des, 11- une/de la.
In this type of expression, du, de la, de l’ and des all
change to de
General Notes
When a partitive article is used in a negative
expression, de is used without the definite article—for Use the partitive article, which expresses that you
example: want part of a whole (some or any), to ask for
an indefinite quantity (something that is not being
1. Voulez-vous de la viande? (Do you want any counted).
meat?)
2. Non, je ne veux pas de viande. (No, I don’t Before a noun, the partitive is generally expressed
want any meat.) by de + the definite article. Note that de + le contract to
become du and de + les contract to become des, as
3. Avez-vous des livres? (Do you have any books?) shown in Table 1.
4. Non, nous n’avons pas de livres. (No, we don’t
have any books.)
5. Nous n’avons pas de beurre (We don’t have any
butter)
6. Je ne mange jamais de viande (I never eat meat)
7. Il n’y a pas de timbres (There aren’t any stamps)
8. Il n’a pas d’argent (He does not have any money)
9. Il n’y a pas d’horlage dans la salle (There isn’t a
clock in the room)
There is one exception. When using the verb être (to be) Note the following about the use of the partitive
in a negative expression, the partitive article is treated article:
as normal—for example:
- Ce n’est pas du jus d’orange. C’est de l’eau. (It  Although the partitive some or any may be
isn’t orange juice. It’s water.) omitted in English, it may not be omitted in
French and must be repeated before each
noun.
9 – French Partitive And Indefinite Articles Exercise
o Il prend des cèrèales et du lait. (He's
So, let’s do some exercises to test your understanding: having cereal and milk.)
complete using un, une, des, du, de la, de l’, de or d’
 In a negative sentence, the
1- Je voudrais 2 kilos ____ pommes s’il vous plaît. partitive some or any is expressed
by deor d' without the article.
2- Je n’ai pas ____ chien.
o Je ne mange jamais de fruits. (I never eat
3- Regarde ! ____ maison rose. any fruits.)

4- Je voudrais ____ gâteau s’il vous plaît (a whole one) o Je n'ai pas d'amis. (I don't have any
friends.)
5- Je voudrais ____ gâteau s’il vous plaît (a portion of
it)
 Before a singular adjective preceding a
singular noun, the partitive is expressed with
or without the article.

o C'est de (du) bon gâteau. (That's good

cake.)

 Before a plural adjective preceding a plural

noun, the partitive is expressed by de alone.

o Ce sont de bons èlèves. (They are good

students.)
 Certain nouns and adverbs of quantity are
followed by the partitive article de ( d' before
a vowel).

 The following nouns and adverbs of

quantity are followed by de + definite article:
o la plupart (most)
o bien (a good many)
o la majoritè (the majority)
o la plus grande partie (the majority)
o La plupart des gens aiment ce film. (Most
people like this movie.)

 The adjectives plusieurs
(several) and quelques (some) modify the
noun directly.
o J'adore plusieurs lègumes. (I like several
vegetables.)
o Il achète quelques livres. (He is buying
some books.)

 The partitive is not used with sans (without)

and ne … ni … ni(neither … nor).
o Elle prendra du thè sans citron. (She'll
take tea without lemon.)
o Il ne boit ni cafè ni thè. (He doesn't
drink coffee or tea.)