Partitives - du, de la, desPartitives – what are they?

Du, de la, de l', des - 'some' and 'any'

To say 'some' or 'any' in French, use: de + the correct article.

Sometimes in English we miss out ‘some’ or ‘any’ in a sentence, but in French you must include them.

avez-vous des fraises ? - have you got (any) strawberries?

je voudrais du poulet, s’il vous plaît - I’d like (some) chicken please

tu as de la monnaie ? - have you got (any) change?

When combining de with an article, follow the rules in the table:

• du comes before a masculine word. Here, we’re using le pain - bread:

je mange du pain le matin - I have (some) bread in the morning

• de la comes before a feminine word, for example la salade - lettuce:

vous avez de la salade ? - do you have any lettuce?

• de l' comes before a singular word beginning with a vowel (eg l’eau) or silent -h (l’huile):

tu bois de l'eau ? - are you drinking some water?

ma mère a acheté de l'huile d’olive - my mother bought some olive oil

• des comes before a word in the plural form, eg les légumes - vegetables:

nous mangeons des légumes - we eat (some) vegetables