Partitive articles (du, de la, de l', des)

Je bois du café le matin.I drink [some] coffee in the morning.

French has a set of articles just for talking about part of something — an amount you're not counting or specifying, like "some coffee" or "some water". In an ordinary sentence about consuming or having an unspecified amount, English often says nothing at all here ("I drink coffee"); French marks it with a partitive article.

Quick shortcut: du (m), de la (f), de l' (before a vowel or mute h), des (plural). All mean "some" — an unspecified amount.

du, de la, de l', des

• Je mange du fromage. (some cheese)
• Elle boit de la soupe. (some soup)
• *Il boit **de l'*eau. (some water)
• Nous achetons des légumes. (some vegetables)

du, de la and de l' are used with a mass noun — something thought of as a substance, not counted one by one (bread, water, soup, cheese). des is used with a countable plural where the quantity isn't specified.

des is not a fourth partitive form

du, de la and de l' are the true partitive articles — the forms that turn a mass noun into "some of it". Plural des, even in a sentence like Il y a des eaux minérales différentes sur la carte (some different mineral waters), is doing the same job des already does elsewhere: it's the plural indefinite article, the plural of un/une, extended here to an unspecified number of things.

So des shares the meaning "some, an unspecified amount" with du/de la/de l', and — usefully — it also follows the exact same rules below (the generic-statement contrast, the shrink to de after a negative). You don't need to treat it as a separate case; just remember it behaves like the singular partitives even though grammatically it's the plural indefinite article.

Some vs. all of it: du café vs. le café

Compare a partitive with a definite article in a generic statement about a whole category:

• ✅ J'aime le café. (I like coffee — coffee in general.) ❌ not J'aime du café for this meaning.
• ✅ Je bois du café. (I drink/am drinking coffee — an actual, unspecified amount of it, whether that's a habit or happening now.)

The definite article talks about the whole category; the partitive talks about an actual, real amount of it that isn't being counted or specified — regardless of tense.

After a negative: du/de la/de l'/des → de

Just like the indefinite article after a negative verb, the partitive shrinks to plain de (or d' before a vowel):

• Je mange du pain. → Je ne mange pas de pain.
• *Elle boit **de l'*eau. → *Elle ne boit **pas d'*eau.
• Il y a des légumes. → *Il **n'*y a pas de légumes.

This is the single most common mistake with the partitive: keeping du/de la/de l'/des after pas instead of shrinking it to de. The article stays unchanged, though, after être (Ce n'est pas du café, c'est du thé) and when the amount is being contrasted rather than plainly denied. The fuller story — including expressions of quantity like beaucoup de — belongs to a later topic; for now, the rule to keep is: a plain negative with avoir or an ordinary verb shrinks the partitive to de.

Common mistakes

• ❌ Je bois eau. → ✅ *Je bois **de l'*eau. (an ordinary sentence about an unspecified amount needs the partitive article)
• ❌ J'aime du chocolat (meaning chocolate in general) → ✅ J'aime le chocolat. (a generic statement needs the definite article)
• ❌ Je ne mange pas du pain. → ✅ Je ne mange pas de pain. (the partitive shrinks to de after a negative)
• ❌ une eau for "some water" → ✅ de l'eau (water is a mass noun here, not a countable "one water")

Quick check

Choose du, de la, de l' or des.

1. Il boit ____ jus d'orange.
2. Nous mangeons ____ salade.
3. Elle met ____ huile dans la poêle.
4. Il y a ____ fraises dans le jardin.
5. Negative: Je bois du thé. → Je ____ bois ____ thé.

Key takeaways

• The partitive articles are du (m), de la (f), de l' (before a vowel or mute h), and plural des.
• They mark an unspecified amount of something — most often a mass noun (food, drink, substances).
• A generic statement about a whole category takes the definite article instead (J'aime le café, not du café).
• After a plain negative, the partitive shrinks to de: Je ne bois pas de café.
• Plural des also serves as the ordinary indefinite plural (des pommes) — in practice both jobs follow the same forms and rules.