French partitive articles: du, de la, de l’, des

French uses du, de la, de l’ and des when you mean “some”, “any”, or an unspecified amount of something. Use du before masculine singular nouns, de la before feminine singular nouns, de l' before a vowel, and des before plural nouns.

Use it for an unspecified amount

English often drops “some”: “I drink coffee”, “we have bread”. French usually keeps an article.

Je bois du café.
I drink coffee / some coffee.

Tu veux de la salade ?
Do you want salad / some salad?

The partitive article does not say exactly how much. It just says you are talking about an amount of the thing.

De l’ before a vowel

Use de l' before a vowel sound, whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

de l’eau, de l’huile, de l’argent
some water, some oil, some money

The apostrophe is required because de la eau and du eau do not work.

After negation: de

After a negative verb, partitive articles usually become de or d'.

J’ai du temps. → Je n’ai pas de temps.
I have time. → I don’t have time.

Il y a de l’eau. → Il n’y a pas d’eau.
There is water. → There isn’t any water.

Definite articles do not change: je n’aime pas le café keeps le because it means “coffee as a category”, not “some coffee”.

Common mistakes

Dropping the article because English drops some

French usually needs the article.

Je veux pain. → Je veux du pain.
I want bread.

Using des for all plural meanings

Des can mean “some” before plural nouns, but after a negative it becomes de.

Je n’ai pas des pommes. → Je n’ai pas de pommes.
I don’t have any apples.

Confusing du with de la

The noun’s gender controls the form.

de la pain → du pain
some bread

This article system connects directly to de vs des and to food phrases like French food vocabulary. Fluera practices the articles with concrete nouns, so you learn du pain, de la soupe and pas de pain as sentence habits. Try it when you practice French.

Practice