French Partitif

Articles are words that go before nouns in French

Every noun needs an article or number in front of it.

I can't say "J'aime football américain." I have to say "J'aime le football américain."

Le is the article in that sentence.

These three articles mean the.

Le is used before masculine things (le football américain)

La is used before feminine things (la table)

Les is used before multiple things (les frites)

These three articles mean a .

Un is used before masculine things (un garçon)

Une is used before a feminine thing (une fille)

Des-We used this to mean some. It was used with more than one thing (Des crêpes)

These are partitive articles in French.

They mean some.

Last year, we used des to mean some but this year we need to be more specific.

Du means some when it is used with a masculine item

Du beurre-some butter

Du proc-some pork

Du jus d'orange-some orange juice

(I know all of these things are masculine because if I look at my note sheet, they either start with a le or an un.)

De la is used to mean some with feminine things

De la salads-some salad

De la confiture-some jam

De la tarte-some pie

(I know all of these things are feminine because they all start with either la or une)

De l' is used to mean some with words that start with vowels.

The only word you will probably use this for is l'eau

De l'eau-some water

I know to use this with l'eau because it starts with a vowel

Des means some for more than one thing

Des raisins-some grapes

Des biscuits-some cookies

Des croissants-some croissants

You will only use these for foods that you want "some" of.

Je veux du gâteau-I want some cake (yes-this makes sense)

Je veux un gâteau-I want a cake. (this is weird)

Usually a cake is something you want some of. Generally speaking, people don't want an entire cake.

You will only use these for foods that you want "some" of.

Je veux une pomme-I want an apple (this make sense)

Je veux de la pomme-I want some apple (this is weird-apples aren't usually something you eat some of. You eat the whole thing)

When you work on your food vocabulary this chapter, pay attention to the article before it.

Une pomme is feminine because une tells me it is feminine

Le poulet is masculine because the le tells me it is masculine

Unfortunately, there isn't an easy way to tell if things are masculine or feminine in French. You just have to learn them that way.