1 – The French Partitive Articles
In French
When you are talking about a portion of an item
(food), or something that cannot be quantified (e.g.
qualities, like patience), use a partitive article:
1. du (+ masculine word)
2. de la (+ feminine word),
3. de l’ (followed by a vowel),
4. des (+ plural word).
2 – Du, De La, De L’, Des = Unspecified Quantity
The French partitive articles express a notion of
quantity: a vague one, a non-specific one.
- Important: these articles are often used after
the verbs vouloir (“Je voudrais du vin”)
or avoir (“J’ai des chats”) and with food.
- It’s the notion of “some” in English, but we
don’t always use the word “some”. Often, we
use nothing at all.
In French, you need to “accompany” your word with
something.
1. Je voudrais de l’eau, s’il vous plait. (some
water, maybe a glass, or maybe a bottle…)
2. Le professeur a de la patience. (patience ; you
are not saying how much patience the teacher has,
just that he/she has some)
3. Voici du gâteau. (some of it, not the whole
cake)
To describe an unspecified plural quantity, use “des”
(both feminine and masculine)
- This tells you there is more than one item, but
again, it’s a vague plural quantity (could be 2,
could be 10,000 or more)…
- This “des” usually applies to whole items, that
you could count, but decided not to.
1. J’ai des Euros. (more than one, but I am not
telling exactly how many)
2. Je vais acheter des pommes. (I’m going to buy
apples. In English, we’d probably won’t use an
article there. Maybe some, but not necessarily. In
French, you need to use “des”)
3. Elle a des amies formidables (she has (some)
great friends)
3 – More About Translating “Some” 
In English, the word “some” is used for unspecified
quantity (I would like some milk) but also as a
derogatory adjective (he went home with some girl).
- In French, you would never say “il est rentré
chez lui avec de la fille”…He didn’t go home
with an unspecified quantity of a girl!! So be
careful, translation doesn’t always work.
Same thing goes with one of my example “elle a des
amis formidables”.
- In English, if you say “she has some great
friends” you’d be strongly implying that her
other friends are not so great…
- So here, we’d use an article when in English
you’d probably use nothing “she has great
friends”.
- You need to use the French logic :”she has an
“unspecified quantity plural” great friends” =
“elle a des amis formidables
Some food items are usually referred to as singular in
English, although they are really plural.
- Like rice. There are many grains of rice, but
it’s rare that you are counting them one by
one…
- So rice is considered as a single ingredient,
singular masculine “le riz”.
- If you need to count each grain, then you’d
use the expression “grain de riz” – Il y a 3
grains de riz sur la table. But, more often,
you’d say something like “J’achète du riz” ( I
buy some rice, or I buy rice).
4 – French Indefinite Articles And Numbers
When you are talking about a whole item, use:
1. un (+ masculine word)
2. une (+ feminine word).
Remark: the indefinite article ‘a, an’, and the cardinal
number ‘one’ have the same translation in French.
1. Voici une fille. (a girl, one girl)
2. Donne-moi une pomme. (an apple, one apple)
3. J’ai un Euro. (an Euro, one Euro)
4. Je cherche un beau livre. (a pretty book)
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’

This is usually the part that confuses students.
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
understanding it all.
When you use an expression of quantity (a kilo of…, a
bottle of…, a little bit of…) you are expressing a very
specific quantity.
- And these are followed by the preposition de
or d’ (+ vowel or h), meaning “of”, exactly
like in English.
- You don’t say “a bottle some water”. You say
“a bottle of water”.
- It’s the same in French: we say: “Une bouteille
d’eau” (of water), not “une bouteille de l’eau”(
de l’ = some).
Unfortunately, this “de” or “d'” looks a lot like “de l’,
du, des etc…” hence the confusion.
So, in French, after an expression of quantity, we use
“de” or “d'” (+ word starting with a vowel).
- Voulez-vous de l’eau (non specific)
- Je voudrais un verre d’eau (specific)
6 – Common French Expressions Of Quantity
Of course, quantity are going to be very common with
food items. So you are likely to use these constructions
a lot, since the French are always talking about food!
1. Un verre de vin (a glass OF wine, NOT DU,
you do not say “a glass some wine”)
2. Une bouteille de champagne (a bottle of
champagne)
3. Une carafe d’eau (a pitcher of water – de
becomes d’ + vowel)
4. Un litre de jus de pomme (a liter of apple
juice)
5. Une assiette de charcuterie (a plate of cold
cuts)
6. Un kilo de pommes de terre (a kilo of
potatoes)
7. Une botte de carottes (a bunch of carrots)
8. Une barquette de fraises (a box
strawberries)
9. Une part de tarte (a slice of pie).
And do not forget all the adverbs, that also specify
quantities :
1. Un peu de fromage (a bit of cheese)
2. Beaucoup de lait (a lot of milk).
3. Quelques morceaux de lards (a few pieces of
bacon).
Note that in spoken French, this “de” is very much
glided, so almost silent (just to make things more
difficult!)
- Un plateau de fromages,
- un peu de raisin,
- un verre et une bouteille de vin
NOTE: Expressions of quantities are followed
by “de”.
7 – Specific Quantity Is Zero, None = Pas + De Or D’
Following the same logic, PAS is a specified quantity ;
none.
- So pas is also followed by the preposition de
or d’.
- (Except after the verb “être” when the article
doesn’t change).
1. J’ai des amis BUT Je n’ai pas d’amis. (I don’t
have any friends)
2. Elle a beaucoup de patience BUT Elle n’a pas
de patience. (She has no patience)
3.  Il y a 5 livres BUT Il n’y a pas de livre. (There
is no book)
BUT: C’est un ami, ce n’est pas un ami.
8 – French Partitive And Indefinite Article Recap
Some things are easy to quantify: one apple. It’s a
whole apple. You usually buy, eat, need one, 2, 3
apples…
But you may decide to be vague, and say “des
pommes” = more than one, but I don’t know exactly
how many.
Now, some things are less easily quantifiable… You
don’t buy “one rice”. You buy either “one kilo of rice”
(a kilo of, an expression of quantity), or “some rice”
(unspecified quantity of an item which is not easily
quantifiable).
of
So you need to ask yourself Am I talking about:
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
an unspecified quantity of something that is not
easily quantifiable (du riz, de la patience)
3. more than one of an item, but a vague plural
quantity (des pommes)
4.  no item at all (pas de pomme)
Negative expressions with partitive articles
In French, you use word pairs like ne …
pas (meaning not) and ne … jamais (meaning never) to
say that something is not happening or not true.
In this type of expression, du, de la, de l’ and des all
change to de
When a partitive article is used in a negative
expression, de is used without the definite article—for
example:
1. Voulez-vous de la viande? (Do you want any
meat?)
2. Non, je ne veux pas de viande. (No, I don’t
want any meat.)
3. Avez-vous des livres? (Do you have any books?)
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)
in a negative expression, the partitive article is treated
as normal—for example:
- Ce n’est pas du jus d’orange. C’est de l’eau. (It
isn’t orange juice. It’s water.)
9 – French Partitive And Indefinite Articles Exercise
So, let’s do some exercises to test your understanding:
complete using un, une, des, du, de la, de l’, de or d’
1- Je voudrais 2 kilos ____ pommes s’il vous plaît.
2- Je n’ai pas ____ chien.
3- Regarde ! ____ maison rose.
4- Je voudrais ____ gâteau s’il vous plaît (a whole one)
5- Je voudrais ____ gâteau s’il vous plaît (a portion of
it)
6_ je voudrais ____ part ____ gâteau s’il vous plaît (a
slice of cake).
7- Non merci, je ne veux pas____ gâteau.
8- Je voudrais ____ eau, s’il vous plaît.
9- Tu as ____ courage.
10- Achète ____ oranges !
11- Voici ____ glace à la vanille.
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.
General Notes
Use the partitive article, which expresses that you
want part of a whole (some or any), to ask for
an indefinite quantity (something that is not being
counted).
Before a noun, the partitive is generally expressed
by de + the definite article. Note that de + le contract to
become du and de + les contract to become des, as
shown in Table 1.
Note the following about the use of the partitive
article:
 Although the partitive some or any may be
omitted in English, it may not be omitted in
French and must be repeated before each
noun.
o Il prend des cèrèales et du lait. (He's
having cereal and milk.)
 In a negative sentence, the
partitive some or any is expressed
by deor d' without the article.
o Je ne mange jamais de fruits. (I never eat
any fruits.)
o Je n'ai pas d'amis. (I don't have any
friends.)
 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.)