Du, de la, des — some of something
CEFR A1
When you eat or buy part of something rather than a whole countable thing, French requires the partitive article. English usually says nothing at all, which is why this is easy to forget.
| Partitive | Example | |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | du | Je voudrais du pain. (I'd like some bread.) |
| feminine | de la | Je prends de la salade. (I'm having some salad.) |
| before a vowel | de l' | Il boit de l'eau. (He drinks water.) |
| plural | des | Elle achète des fruits. (She buys fruit.) |
You cannot leave it out. Je voudrais pain is not a sentence.
After a negative, all of them become "de": "Je prends du café." → "Je ne prends pas de café." "Il y a des tomates." → "Il n'y a pas de tomates."
What this unlocks
Knowing the rule is not the same as producing it.
This page explains the pattern. The track drills it: the point arrives inside a mini-dialogue, then production marked against a CEFR descriptor, then a module test that returns you to your two weakest sessions if you miss it.