We can translate the partitive
articles in French to "some" or "any" in English. There are
four forms of the French partitive article:
|
FRENCH
|
ENGLISH
|
|
DU
|
SINGULAR M.
|
|
DE LA
|
SINGULAR F.
|
|
DE L’
|
SINGULAR STARTING WITH A VOWEL OR H MUET, M OR F
|
|
DES
|
PLURAL, M OR F.
|
We use the partitive articles in French to indicate an unknown quantity of something,
usually food or drink. It is often omitted in English.
AVEZ-VOUS BU DU THÉ ?
(DID YOU DRINK SOME TEA?)
J'AI DEJA MANGE DE LA SALADE.
I ATE SALAD YESTERDAY.
However, after adverbs of quantity we have to use de instead of the partitive article.
IL Y A BEAUCOUP DE THÉ.
(THERE IS A LOT OF TEA.)
AVEZ-VOUS BU DU THÉ ?
(DID YOU DRINK SOME TEA?)
J'AI DEJA MANGE DE LA SALADE.
I ATE SALAD YESTERDAY.
However, after adverbs of quantity we have to use de instead of the partitive article.
IL Y A BEAUCOUP DE THÉ.
(THERE IS A LOT OF TEA.)
You also have to use de as the negative form of a sentence using the
partitive article meaning not (any):
J'AI MANGÉ DE LA SALADE. > JE N'AI PAS MANGÉ DE SALADE.
I ATE SALAD. > I DIDN'T EAT ANY SALAD.
