Review of Partitive Articles

In French, most nouns need to be supported by an article. One type of article is the partitive
article which in English is "some" or "any". French articles are also masculine or feminine,
singular or plural, according to the gender and number of the noun they determine. There can
also be an alternative version of an article if the noun it precedes begins with a vowel a, e, i, o, u.
Here are the partitive articles in French:
There are only three partitive articles in French.
du pain
de la viande
de l'ail (m.)
de leau (f.)
The partitive article is created from combining de and the definite article.
Masculine: du
Feminine: de la
Masculine or feminine before a vowel: de l'

(some) bread
(some) meat
(some) garlic
(some) water

Uses
Partitive articles are used to express quantities that cannot be counted. The partitive articles are
the equivalent of the English articles "some" or "any". The partitive article is used before mass
nouns, nouns that are indivisible or uncountable. Example:
Edouard: Comme dessert, nous avons de la
Edouard: For dessert, we have (some)
mousse au chocolat, de la glace parfume
chocolate mousse, vanilla ice cream, and
la vanille et du sorbet l'ananas.
pineapple sorbet.
These articles are describing the foods in a general term while still addressing it as a quantity. So
the example above says some chocolate mousse, some vanilla ice cream, and some
pineapple sorbet. This is different from giving a more specific quantity of a bowl of chocolate
mousse or a cup of vanilla ice cream.
Here is how I this. Lets say your grandma invites you home for some hot chocolate. You are
really hoping that she has marshmallows. In English you could ask for it in different ways:

Do you have any marshmallows?

Do you have marshmallows?
Do you have some marshmallows?

Because I am referring to a small amount of and not the entire worlds supply of marshmallows,
some is meant. So the partitive is used in French, as follows: Vous avez des guimauves?

After a negative
In negative sentences, du, de la, des, de l' change to de. Example:
Joe-Bob mange de
viande.
Arnold boit du caf.

la

Tammy ne mange pas de

viande.
Tammy ne boit jamais de
caf.
Il n'y a plus de vin.

Joe-Bob eats meat.

Tammy does not eat meat.
Arnold drinks coffee.
Tammy never drinks coffee.
Il y a encore du vin.
There is some wine left.
There is not any wine left.
When the partitive is used in a negative expression, de appears alone, without the definite article.
This happened regardless if the noun being used in the partitive is masculine or feminine, the
only word appearing before it will be de.