One, one, des, du, de la (or de?). I will clearly explain the French partitive and indefinite articles: “some” vs specific set (+ audio recordings) An indefinite article is used to define an unspecified/unquantified name. In English, indefinite articles are translated as “a/year”, “some” or “any”. As with some elements, the shape of the indeterminate element you choose depends on the gender and number of the person or object you are referring to. If you have more than one, then you will use numbers: 2, 3, 10 . With numbers, you don`t use articles. To master French numbers, practice with my French audio series Numbers and Exercises – exclusively available on my French blog today. The French partitive articles express a notion of quantity: vague, non-specific. Following the same logic, PAS is a specified set; nothing. Pas is also followed by the preposition of or d`.

(Except after the verb “to be” if the article does not change). Exercise Write these questions in your notebook. Click the name after answering each question to view sample answers. In a negative sentence, the indefinite article always changes to designate the English word “any” (even if the noun is plural). If you`re talking about part of an item (food) or something that can`t be quantified (e.B. qualities, like patience), use a partitive article: the same goes for one of my examples “she has great friends”. In English, if you say “she has great friends,” you would strongly imply that her other friends are not that great. So here we would be using an article if you probably weren`t using anything “she has great friends” in English.

You have to use the French logic: “She has an “unspecified set of great plural friends” = “she has great friends That`s it, I hope this article has made things clearer for you. In my French audiobooks for beginners and advanced learners, many chapters are about food or take place in a restaurant, and you will find these articles in each chapter in context. Just like with specific articles, there are four forms for these articles: Please reply! Leave a comment, make a suggestion, share this article. Your commitment really encourages me to create more free French lessons! A, AN or ONE, SOME, ANY — To translate this term, the French use a combination of 2 articles; We learned before that to deny a sentence, you have to sandwich the “don`s” and the “not” around the verb. Note the indefinite article change in these examples of affirmative and negative sentences. Let`s talk about gender again. In Unit 2, you learned that all French names have a gender. They are either men or women. You can see in your new vocabulary that these names are not living beings, but that they still have a gender. As mentioned earlier, do not think that the items belong to a man or a woman or were bought or manufactured by either of them.

Think of gender only in terms of the technical part of the word. Just learn the words as they are and learn the gender with them. How will you learn gender with the word? Pay special attention to the article that accompanies it. If he has one or the front in front of him, it is a male. If he has one or the one in front of him, it is a female. Important: These items are often used according to the verbs to want (“I would like wine”) or to have (“I have cats”) and with food. Learn more about the specific articles French le, la, l`, les and their forms “mutated” au, aux et du, des. Practice putting the particular article in front of these names, and then the indefinite article in front of them. Click on each name to see if you did it right. A blouse? You`ve probably noticed the little words in front of the clothes. These little words, one, one, des, are similar to the words el, la, the ones we learned in unit 2.

Remember that we called the, the, the defined articles? They mean “the” in English. The words you have seen in front of the clothes are called indeterminate items and mean one, one or some in English. In English we can sometimes omit articles (specific and indefinite), but in French they are used more often, so we need to learn more about them. If you look at the list of words below, you will see if you can guess what the words mean in English. Click on each word to see what it means. Even though it`s not an article in itself, I think it should be studied in this lesson because it`s really the key to understanding everything. What about strawberry ice cream and strawberry jam? Check out my article to find out why French uses “à la” and “de” there. Clothing An important reason to know what time looks like is to know what we need to wear. Look at the slides here to learn the names of some clothes in English Note: The indefinite article “a, an” and the cardinal number “one” have the same translation in English. When constructing your sentence, it is best not to translate from English, but to understand if you are talking about an exact or vague amount, and to use the appropriate French`article.

Of course, the amount will be very common in food. You`ll probably use these constructions often, because the French always talk about food! In French you would never say “he went home with the girl”. He didn`t come home with an indefinite amount of a girl!! Be careful, translation does not always work. Additional clothing vocabulary can be found in this table. Be sure to click on each of them to repeat the item and do it as many times as you want in order to feel completely confident with the new vocabulary. We will use it quite often in this unit. 1- I would like 2 kilos ____ apples please.2- I don`t have ____ dog.3- Look! ____ pink house.4- I would like ____ cake please (a whole)5- I would like ____ cake please (part of it)6_ I would like ____ part ____ cake if you p (a piece of cake).7- No thanks, I don`t want pas____ cake.8- I would like ____ water, please.9- You have ____ courage.10- Buy ____ oranges!11- Here is ____ vanilla ice cream. Thus, in French, after an expression of the whole, we use “de” or “d`” (+ word that begins with a vowel). To describe an unspecified plural size, use “des” (feminine and masculine).

This tells you that there is more than one element, but again, this is a vague plural size (could be 2, could be 10,000 or more). This “of” usually applies to entire items that you could count but didn`t decide. So let`s do some exercises to test your understanding: complete with one, one, des, you, de la, de l`, de or d`. It`s the term “some,” but we don`t always use the word “some.” Often we don`t use anything at all. The key to understanding lies in understanding that it`s all about specifying quantity. Start learning a foreign language while working with your team. Learn how CORE Languages can support a range of language services for your business. Some foods are usually called in the singular in English, although they are really plural. Like rice. There are many rice cereals out there, but it`s rare that you count them individually. Thus, rice is considered as a single ingredient, a singular male “rice”.

If you have to count each grain, you will use the term “rice grainin” – There are 3 grains of rice on the table. But more often than not, you`d say something like “I buy rice” (I buy rice, or I buy rice). And this is followed by the preposition of or d`(+ vowel or h), which means “of”, just like in English. Do you understand the difference between a jacket and a jacket? The jacket is the jacket. A jacket is a jacket. While this may seem like a small difference, you will learn that these are very important differences. When you use an expression of quantity (a kilo…, a bottle…, a little of…), you express a very specific quantity. . Some things are easy to quantify: an apple. It`s a whole apple. Usually you buy, eat, need one, 2, 3 apples.

But you can choose to be vague and say “apples” = more than one, but I don`t know exactly how many. Answers: 1- from, 2- from, 3- one, 4- one, 5- from, 6- one. de, 7- de, 8- de l`, 9- du, 10- des, 11- une/de la. Learning French in context is the best way to get these French nuances: do you enjoy my free French lessons? We are a company of 2 people based in France. Please consider supporting us and checking out French downloadable audiobooks French today: French Today`s bilingual novels are recorded at different speeds and pronunciations, focusing on today`s modern slippery pronunciation. In French, you must “accompany” your word with something. Start enhancing your learning experience by working with one of our amazing language teachers. Visit the shop today. They don`t say “a bottle of water.” We say “a bottle of water”.

In French it`s the same thing: we say: “A bottle of water”, not “a bottle of water”. .