Expressions of quantity (beaucoup de, un peu de, assez de...)

Il y a beaucoup de circulation aujourd'hui.There's a lot of traffic today.

French has a small set of quantity words — beaucoup de, un peu de, assez de, trop de, peu de — that, for a general amount, go directly in front of a noun with de, and no article at all in between.

Quick shortcut: for a general amount, quantity word + de + noun — no le/la/les or un/une/des sits between them.

Quantity expressions with de

Plusieurs and quelques work a little differently from the others — see below.

de stays de for a general amount

This is the point most learners get wrong: talking about a general, unspecified amount, the de after beaucoup, un peu, assez, trop and peu stays exactly de (or d' before a vowel) — it doesn't pick up le/la/les the way an ordinary noun would, whatever its gender or number:

• beaucoup de temps (masculine) — a general amount of time
• beaucoup de patience (feminine) — a general amount of patience
• *beaucoup **d'*amis (plural) — a general number of friends

This de is not the same thing as the partitive article (du, de la, des) that appears in an ordinary sentence like Je bois du café — that's a separate topic, its own fixed article. For a general amount, the de after a quantity word never expands into one of those forms.

Elision: d' before a vowel

Just like elsewhere in French, de shrinks to d' before a word starting with a vowel or a mute h:

• *assez **d'*argent
• *beaucoup **d'*amis
• *trop **d'*eau
• *peu **d'*hôtels

plusieurs and quelques: no de at all

Plusieurs ("several") and quelques ("a few", "some") attach straight to the noun, with no de and no article:

• ✅ plusieurs amis — never ❌ plusieurs de amis
• ✅ quelques livres — never ❌ quelques de livres

Both are always followed by a plural noun and don't change form for gender.

A general amount vs. part of a specific group

Une (bonne) partie de already shows a different pattern: it refers to part of a specific, already-identified group or thing, so de combines normally with whatever article that group takes — it can combine into du, de la, des, or be followed by a possessive determiner like mes:

• Une (bonne) partie de la classe est absente. (part of the class)
• Une partie de mes amis habitent à Paris. (part of my friends)

The same thing can happen with beaucoup, peu and the others once the noun that follows is pinned down to something specific, rather than a general, unspecified amount:

• beaucoup de livres (a lot of books, in general) vs. beaucoup des livres que j'ai achetés (many of the books I bought — a particular, already-identified set)
• beaucoup de mes amis (many of my friends — a possessive, not a bare general noun)

So the "no article" rule from the sections above is really a rule about talking in general terms; once the noun is a specific group you're referring back to, de combines with its article or possessive the ordinary way.

Looking ahead: two related topics

When one of these expressions appears in a negative sentence, nothing about it changes — Il n'y a pas beaucoup de temps keeps the very same de it always has, because that de belongs to beaucoup, not to the negation. This is different from the indefinite article, which only becomes de because of a negative verb (un vélo → pas de vélo): with a quantity expression there's no article to shrink in the first place — the de was already there. Two related topics have their own lessons: how French says "some" of a mass noun with partitive articles (du café, de la patience), and the fuller story of how de behaves after negation and with other quantity words.

Common mistakes

• ❌ plusieurs de livres. → ✅ plusieurs livres. (plusieurs takes no de at all)
• ❌ quelques de choses. → ✅ quelques choses. (quelques takes no de at all)
• ❌ assez argent. → ✅ *assez **d'*argent. (don't drop the de/d')
• ❌ trop de eau. → ✅ *trop **d'*eau. (elide to d' before a vowel)
• ❌ Il y a beaucoup du bruit ici. → ✅ Il y a beaucoup de bruit ici. (a general amount, not a specific, already-known noise)

Quick check

Complete each sentence with the right quantity expression.

1. Il y a ____ (a lot of) monde ici.
2. Je voudrais ____ (a little) café, s'il vous plaît.
3. Nous avons ____ (enough) temps.
4. Elle a ____ (several) frères.
5. Il y a ____ (too much) bruit dans cette rue.

Key takeaways

• Quantity words like beaucoup, un peu, assez, trop and peu are followed by de + noun, with no article in between, when they refer to a general, unspecified amount.
• For that general amount, de stays de — it doesn't turn into du, de la or des, whatever the noun's gender or number.
• De shrinks to d' before a vowel or mute h (assez d'argent).
• Plusieurs and quelques attach straight to the noun with no de at all.
• Once the noun refers to a specific, already-identified group (or a possessive like mes amis), de combines with its own article or possessive the ordinary way — beaucoup des livres que j'ai lus, une partie de mes amis.
• The de after a quantity word doesn't change under negation — it's already de, not de created by the negation.