The partitive articles

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.)

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.