The partitive article Notes #10

What is the partitive article?  The partitive article indicates a part, a quantity or an amount of something. To form the partitive article, you will combine de with either le, la, les, or l’.  de+le=du  de+la = de la  de+les=des  de +l’= de l’

Meaning  In English the partitive article means “some” or “any”. You will use this article any time you describe an unspecified amount.  Ex: Tu veux du gâteau?(do you want some cake?)  Oui, je veux du gâteau. (yes, I want some cake)

Review  In addition to the partitive article, we have also studied both definite and indefinite articles.  The definite articles are (le, la, les, l’) and they mean “the”.  The indefinite articles are (un, une, des) and mean “a/some”

So…when do we use which article?  After certain expressions: vouloir, acheter, manger, donner, prendre, désirer, avoir, voici, voilá and il y a…  You will use the partitive article to indicate an unknown amount. You will use the definitive article when referring to the whole amount of an object or when talking about that object in general.  Ex: On achète des escargots.=we are buying some snails. (we do not know exactly how many, just that we are buying some)

 Ex: J’adore les fruits de mer.= I love seafood (here we use the definite article “les” because we are talking about all seafood in general)  What articles would you use here?  Comme entrée,tu as le choix entre ___ potage ou ___ crudités?

 Comme entrée, tu as le choix entre du potage ou des crudités. (you have the choice between soup and raw vegetables)  In the above example, we use the partitive articles before the nouns even though the word “some” is absent in the English translation. The quantity of soup and raw vegetables is unknown and we are not talking about all soups and raw vegetables in general.

Hint: Aimer, adorer, préférer  You will almost always use the definite articles (le, la, les, l’) after these verbs to talk about what you like/don’t like in general.  Ex: J’adore le pain au chocolat! Mais je n’aime pas les beignets.

Partitive articles in the negative  In negative sentences du, de la, de l’ and des change to de or d’  Je vais prendre du café.  Je ne vais pas prendre de café  ***There is not change in the negative for definite articles***  J’aime la mousse au chocolat  Je n’aime pas la mousse au chocolat.