4B Partitives

Question 1

Use partitive articles in French to express SOME or ANY. To form the partitive, use the preposition __ followed by a definite article.

partitive must always be used in French

Answer 1

DE

MS FS S. beg. w/ vowel
—— ——– —————————
du de la de l’

example
je bois DU thé chaud
(I drink some hot tea)

tu bois DE LA limonade?
(are you drinking any lemon soda?)

Elle prend DE L’eau
(is she having some water?)

Question 2

Partitive articles are only used with nouns whose quantity cannot be expressed by a number

Answer 2

example

tu prends DU PAIN tous les jours
(you have some bread every day)

tu prends une banane, aussi
(you have a banana, too.)

Question 3

The article ___ also means SOME, but it is the plural form of the indefinite article, not the partitive.

Answer 3

DES

example
vous prenez DE LA limonade
(you’re having some lemon soda)

nous prenons DES croissants
(we’re having some croissants)

Question 4

As with the indefinite articles, the partitives __, ____, and ____ also become DE (meaning not any) in a NEGATIVE sentence.

Answer 4

DU
DE LA
DE L’

example
est-ce qu’il y a DU lait?
(is there any milk?)

prends-tu DE LA soupe?
(will you have some soup?)

non, il n’y a pas DE lait
(no there isn’t any milk)