5.10: Structure - Articles partitifs

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Objectif

In this section, you will learn about partitives

Media Alternative

Listen to the audio clips that follow on this page to hear the French pronunciation of vocabulary and examples presented.

On étudie !

It's time to go into town and do some shopping. What are we going to buy? Are we going to buy "some milk" or are we going to buy a "carton of milk"? Do we need some bread or do we need "some loaves of bread"? Are we going to drink "some coffee" or are we going to drink "a couple of coffees". In order to make these decisions, we should take a look at partitive articles!

Les partitifs

You are already familiar with the definite articles (le, la, les) and indefinite articles (un, une, des). Now we will look at a third kind of article called partitives. These are formed by combining the preposition de with a singular definite article: du, de la, de l', des. Partitive articles indicate an unspecified quantity of a noun (nouns that normally cannot be counted, like "sugar", "sand", "money", or that don't need to be counted). They are similar to the word "some" in English. Here are some examples:

Je prends de l'eau. (I'm having some water.)

Tu veux du café ? (Do you want some coffee?)

Il a du papier dans son bureau. (He has some paper in his office.)

J'ai mis de la confiture sur le pain. (I put some jelly on the bread.)

Ma mère vas acheter des pâtisseries. (My mother is going to buy some pastries.)

Note

When you negate these examples, you will just use de without a definite article after it.

Je ne prends pas d'eau.

Tu ne veux pas de café ?

Il n'a pas de papier dans son bureau.

Je n'ai pas mis de confiture.

The partitive article does not always translate to some in English:

— Qu'est-ce que tu vas acheter au supermarché ? (What are you going to buy at the supermarket?)

— Du pain, de la bière et de l'eau minérale. (Bread, beer and mineral water.)

Here is a summary of Partitive articles:

Articles partitifs
Genre, nombre	Articles partitifs ou contractions	Négation
masculin singulier	du de l'	de d'
féminin singulier	de la de l'	de d'
masculin ou féminin pluriel	des	de d'

It is important to recognize the difference between partitive vs. indefinite articles. Compare:

(1) du gâteau (some cake) vs. (2) des gâteaux ([some] cakes)

In the first example, gateau is a mass noun that cannot be counted. In "Would you like some cake" we are not dealing with a specific number of cakes or pieces of cake - just some cake. We know this because of the partitive du and the singular form of the noun gateau. In the second example, gâteaux is a countable noun. We know this because it is pluralized with an -x in French (like the -s in cakes) and because it is preceded by the plural article des.

See if you can recognize this same difference between mass nouns (with partitives) vs. countable nouns (without partitives), in these examples:

partitifs vs. articles indéfinis
noms massifs avec partitifs	noms comptables avec articles définis
On achète du pain à la boulangerie.	On achète des gâteaux à la pâtisserie.
Nous achetons du poisson à la poissonnerie.	Nous achetons des poissons à la poissonnerie.
Malia achète de l'eau à l'épicerie.	Malia achète des bouteilles d'eau.
J'achète de la farine au supermarché.	J’achète des sacs de farine au supermarché.

So, when we do not need to be specific about how much or how many we are talking about, we can just say:

J'achète du papier. (I buy some paper.)

Marie boit de l'eau minérale. (Marie drinks some mineral water.)

Je trouve de l'argent dans la rue. (I find some money in the street.)

Here is a summary of all the articles:

Tableau récapitulatif des articles
Déterminants	Articles	Négation
Articles indéfinis	un (m. sing.) une (f. sing.) des (m., f. pl.)	de, d'
Articles définis	le (m. sing.) la (f. sing.) l' (m., f. sing.) les (m., f. pl.)	le (m. sing.) la (f. sing.) l' (m., f. sing.) les (m., f. pl.)
Articles partitifs	du (m. sing.) de la (f. sing.) de l' (m., f. sing.) des (m., f. pl.)	de, d'

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Note

Ressources en ligne

Objectif

Media Alternative

On étudie !

Les partitifs

Note

On approfondit !

Ressources en ligne

Exercice 1 : articles partitifs

Exercice 2 : articles partitifs, indéfinis, de/d