Describing food and drink preferences in French

• Use indefinite, definite or partitive articles ('some' or 'any') when talking about food and drink.

• This guide contains listening and reading practice as well as video comprehensions.

Useful nouns for describing food include:

For example:

Dans ce plat, il y a du riz, du poisson et des légumes. - In this dish, there is rice, fish and vegetables.

Je voudrais une baguette au fromage. - I would like a cheese baguette.

Useful nouns for describing drinks include:

For example:

J’aime le thé noir avec du sucre. - I like black tea with sugar.

Je bois du lait avec mon petit déjeuner. - I drink milk with my breakfast.

Je voudrais un un jus de fruits, s’il vous plait. - I would like a fruit juice, please.

Did you know?

There are hundreds of different types of cheese in France – some say over a thousand!

When talking about food and drink, you can use one of the following:

• the indefinite article un or une - 'a' or 'an'

• the definite article le, la, l’, les - 'the'

• the partitive article du, de la, des, de l’ - 'some' or 'any'.

For example:

Chaque jour, je bois un café au lait. – Every day I drink a white coffee.

Les glaces ici sont trop bonnes. – The ice-creams here are too good.

Partitive articles

‘Some’ and ‘any’ are partitive articles and are used to refer to an unknown quantity of something.

In French, the partitive article is formed with de (‘of’) and the definite article (‘the’).

The partitive article changes depending on whether the noun it goes with is masculine, feminine, starts with a vowel or a silent 'h' or is plural.

Partitive articles are often used to talk about food and drink, with verbs including:

When using negative expressions such as ne … pas (not any), ne … jamais (never), use de without the definitive article (le, la, l’ or les).

For example:

Je ne mange pas de viande. – I don’t eat meat.

Mon ami ne boit jamais d’eau minérale. – My friend never drinks mineral water.

With expressions of quantity such as beaucoup de (a lot of), trop de (too much), plus de (more), de is not followed by an article (le, la, l’ or les).

For example:

Il y a beaucoup de légumes au marché. – There are a lot of vegetables in the market.

J’ai bu trop de café aujourd’hui. – I have drunk too much coffee today.

Remember

After verbs of preference, just use the definite articles, le/la/l’ or les.

J’aime les glaces. - I like ice-cream.

Je déteste la viande. - I hate meat.

Il préfère les pâtes. - He prefers pasta.

Choose the correct article to complete the following sentences.

Find out more about partitive articles in the Partitive articles in French guide.

Listen to the descriptions of different dishes and decide which option is being talked about.

Useful vocabulary related to eating out includes:

For example:

Je voudrais une glace comme dessert. - I would like an ice-cream for dessert.

Useful phrases when preparing a role play task include:

All Foundation Tier vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

Did you know?

Before eating with other people, it is a French custom to say Bon appétit! (Enjoy your meal!)

Look at the adverts, then read the reviews and work out which restaurant the reviewers went to.

Advert A - Bistrot Blanc

Cuisine française de campagne.

Inspirée des recettes de nos grands-mères.

Desserts traditionels.

Menu déjeuner rapide: 15 euros

Advert B - Café du Coin

Pour goûter à la meilleure cuisine canadienne.

Spécialités véganes.

Cuisine moderne !

Advert C - Le Petit Bateau

Poisson frais, frites à emporter.

Restaurant à cinquante places.

Situé près du port.

Advert D - Chez Luigi

La meilleure pizza végétarienne de la région - selon les journaux !

Fastfood sur place ou à emporter

Watch the video of Michel and Amélie discussing what they eat and answer the questions below.

Now have a go at answering the following questions.

Watch the short video of Bilal, a Chelsea Football Club academy player, talking about his favourite meal then answer the question.

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful vocabulary to use when describing food and drink preferences.

Useful vocabulary includes:

For example:

Comme boisson, je prends une bouteille d’eau. - As a drink, I have a bottle of water.

Il n’y a pas de couteaux sur la table. - There are no knives on the table.

All vocabulary listed in this guide can be found on the vocabulary sheet below.

When using negative expressions such as ne … plus (no more), use de without an article (le, la, l’ or les).

For example:

Il n’y a plus de lait. - There is no more milk.

Remember that before a vowel or a silent h, de becomes d’.

Countable nouns are objects that can be counted, such as ‘brother’. You can say 'I have one brother' or 'I have two brothers'.

Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be counted, such as ‘water’, and they are usually in the singular form.

For example, you can’t say “I am going to drink two waters”, you need to say “I am going to drink some water”.

The partitive articles ‘some’ and ‘any’ need to be used with uncountable nouns.

This is the same in French. Use de, de la or de l’ with uncountable nouns to mean ‘some’ or ‘any’.

For example:

Je vais manger du chocolat. – I am going to eat some chocolate.

Tu as de l’eau ? – Do you have any water?

Click or tap on the image below for a list of useful Higher Tier vocabulary to use when describing food and drink preferences.

Now you have learned about describing food and drink preferences, have a look at the Describing social activities in French guide.