[Originally posted on 07/12/14 on the Duolingo French for English speakers forum by DXLi]
One of the most common questions I see on the English-to-French Duolingo is whether the definite article (le/la/les), partitive article (du/de la), or plural indefinite article (des) should be used. This confusion arises because you can omit articles in English, but you usually cannot in French.
Here are some guidelines on how you can use articles correctly on Duolingo. Note that native Francophones may use them differently, but Duo is very specific about their usage.
When you see an article, translate it directly. “The” will always be definite, “a” will always be indefinite (un/une), and when you see des in French, you can use “some” or just omit it in English. (There are exceptions. See below.)
When articles are missing in an English sentence, they must be added to the French translation. The definite article can be used if one of three conditions is met:
- When referring to particular nouns that are known to the speakers.
- Before the subject of a sentence to state general truths about it.
- Before the direct object of a verb of appreciation (like aimer) to express like/dislike.
If any of the above is true, then use the definite article. Otherwise, use the indefinite or partitive, depending on whether or not the noun is countable. In most cases, use du or de la (partitive) for singulars and des (indefinite) for plurals.
- I like wine, but I am drinking milk. — J’aime le vin, mais je bois du lait.
Both articles are missing in the English version of this example. Aimer expresses fondness for wine, so le vin should be used there. However, boire is not a verb of appreciation, so the partitive du should be used on the uncountable lait.
- Cats are animals. — Les chats sont des animaux.
This is a general truth about cats, but #2 above can only apply to subjects, so only chats takes a definite article here. Animaux are countable, so the indefinite is used.
- He likes to eat meat. — Il aime manger de la viande.
This is a tricky example because meat is the direct object of manger, not aimer. Thus, #2 does not apply and viande cannot take a definite article.
Here’s another example: “Local women wear black dresses.” Which articles should we use? Think about it for a moment. The correct answer is at the bottom.
Also remember:
- In negations, indefinite and partitive articles all become de except with être or if you want to stress the negative aspect.
- For countable nouns, sometimes “some” should be translated as quelque or certaines. These words denote some subset of a larger group.
- If there’s an adjective in front of the noun, des becomes de.
- If you want to learn more about the partitive, look here.
- Local women wear black dresses. — Les femmes locales portent des robes noires.
This sentence is making a generalization about local women, so femmes takes the definite article. Robes noires does not, however, because it’s not the subject nor the object of a verb of appreciation. However, consider this similar example where les can be used on both:
- Local women like black dresses. — Les femmes locales aiment les robes noires.
Selected comments on original post
De rien! If you or anyone else has any ideas on confusing topics that I can address in the future, I’m taking suggestions.
There are also cases when articles are omitted in French as well…could you also explain these?
Certainement. These are pretty rare, so you’ll just have to memorize them. Articles are…
- Optional between être and professions. For instance, je suis médecin.
- Optional between parler and the names of languages. For instance, je parle anglais. Note that this isn’t true for other verbs (e.g. savoir) and that language names are not capitalized.
- Optional with adjectives of number. For instance, plusieurs pays or deux chevaux. Including an article with these may be forbidden or may change the meaning.
- Optional after certain prepositions. For instance, sans eau or après déjeuner.
- Optional after devenir. For instance, devenir roi.
- Omitted when using de to indicate a larger whole something came from, the way something was made, or the purpose of an object (see here).
- Omitted after some expressions ending in de. For instance, beaucoup d’eau or avoir besoin de nourriture.
- Replaced by a possessive adjective. For instance, votre chien.
EDIT: I should point out that it’s not that French requires articles before most nouns, but rather that it requires determiners, which are a broader category that includes articles. Adjectives of number and possessive adjectives fall into this category. Also, this now has its own thread.
Salut DXLi,
J’ai un question sur utiliser les vs. des. In this sentence, « He sells vegetables in this store, » I mistakenly think it is supposed to be: « Il vend les légumes dans ce magasin. » This is because he sells vegetables (generally) in this store.
But it is supposed to be this: « Il vend des légumes dans ce magasin. »
Is this about partitive vs. definite or is it about the verb « vendre » ?
Aren’t there some verbs which require de/des/d’ in following, such as « manger » ou « avoir » ? Or am I still mistaken? Let me know if you need me to clarify. Merci pour votre temps.
😀
-kat
Salut Kat! C’est une bonne question. Verbs don’t usually affect what article one must use. Some verbs, like aimer, happen to be associated with generalized definite articles more frequently, but that’s just a coincidence.
In this sentence, you are actually not generalizing about légumes. I gave a terse explanation above that doesn’t appear to be sufficient, so here’s the long version: the French use the definite article for the gnomic aspect (or universal aspect), which expresses general truths. You have to be careful, because this doesn’t apply to anything that we’d call a generalization in English. It can only be used to give the definite article to a particular noun when we’re expressing a general and universal truth or sentiment about that noun. You’ll get a better sense for this as you become more experienced in French.
So, in your example, you’re correct that you’re generalizing that he sells vegetables. But this doesn’t state any kind of general truth about vegetables. It just means that he sells some undefined set of things that happen to be vegetables, and that’s why we use the partitive des.
Now, let’s say that you’re explaining supermarkets to a foreigner. You say “Supermarkets sell vegetables.” One of these nouns is operating in the gnomic aspect. Which one? It’s certainly “supermarkets”, because you’re stating a general truth about them–that they sell vegetables, among other things. So this would be « Les supermarchés vendent des légumes. »
There are some verbs that require de/d’ to complete a meaning, but these aren’t partitive articles. They’re just the preposition de. For instance, “to think about” (as in have an opinion) is penser de.
Bonjour encore DXLi, merci beaucoup pour votre réponse.
You make an entirely reasonable point that generalizations are treated/understood differently between English and French. I should get used to using the universal aspect. Perhaps this is my homework. I have to train my brain to think this way in English, so that I’ll use it easily in français.
I may also have thousands of follow-up questions, the more I practice it, but this is just me thinking out loud… The more I practice it, the more I have the feel for it.
Quick thought: I want to know this, if I eat beans (generally), then would I say, « je mange des haricots, » rather than, « je mange les haricots » (the beans we’re already talking about)? If I generally buy pink things, then would I say that j’achète des choses roses (heh, c’est amusant dire) rather than « j’achète les choses roses, » … vrai ?
….And if Americans generally buy pink things, puis on dit, « Les Américains achètent des choses roses, » vrai ? Et if stores (generally) sell things, then les magasins vendent des choses.
Merci, et désolé about my ongoing confusion. I don’t mean to attack the language, in case that’s what it sounds like. I probably should, however, loosen my mind and practice/apprendre the universal aspect in my everyday thoughts.
There is an exception about the use of ‘de’ in negations. If the verb is être the article remains the same.
DesertGlass [contributor]
This article is useful, but it’s a shame that the only example you have given of using a definite article is with an appreciative verb, which is an unusual case. I’ve been desperately trying to find somewhere online which illustrates your point #1 about the “nouns known to the speaker” as I’ve had two friends who have formally studied French (and one is a language tutor) tell me that there is no difference in French between “ils trouvent la nourriture” and “ils trouvent de la nourriture”. I was certain there was a difference, but this potentially broken question in Duolingo seemed to indicate there wasn’t. (The “answer” given at the top of the linked the forum page was “”Ils trouvent la nourriture.” – no not one of the given answers – yes it did say “ils” not “elles” 😛 )
The OP contains three different examples of the use of a definite article, not just one, so I’m not sure what you mean by that. As far as “nouns known to the speaker”, this refers to the most common use of the definite article, which is to refer to a specific thing that has been identified to all participants in the conversation.
Despite what your friends say, there is a difference between the partitive and the definite in both French and English. For instance, “the meat” is a specific, identified portion of meat, while just “meat” (or “some meat”) can refer to any meat or even all meat. Consider the following examples:
Example 1: You want to ask someone if he’s a vegetarian. You would ask “Do you eat meat?”. Asking “Do you eat the meat?” would be silly.
Example 2: You are cooking some meat. Your friend calls you to chat. You can only say “I’m cooking the meat” if you have already mentioned it or if your friend knows about it otherwise (e.g. he bought it for you). If your friend has no idea that you have meat, you have to say “[some] meat” instead of “the meat”.
As for the exercise you’ve posted, this is just due to inconsistencies in the course. There are thousands upon thousands of exercises in the course, all of which are manually edited. There’s no word-for-word translation checking. We’re working on fixing this; sorry!
DesertGlass [contributor]
Thanks 🙂 … so, just to clarify … in that screenshot I posted… the “correct” answer I gave, should have been wrong, right?
Part of my friends’ confusion might have been the idea that there are certain kinds of substances that you can only speak of in an undefined quantity and never in the specific (definitive). My language tutor friend said that “nourriture” is that kind of word, what he called an “uncountable noun”. (He’s not a native French speaker, so maybe he’s rusty.)
I am very doubtful of that as I cannot think of any such concept in English, and would be surprised if French was so limited to not be able to refer to specific pieces of something physical.
Aye, the correct answer should be Ils/Elles trouvent la nourriture.
You’re right that there are countable and uncountable nouns, but all nouns can take definite articles. An uncountable noun with a definite article refers to a specific portion of that uncountable noun. However, uncountable nouns cannot be plural (with a few exceptions, such as pâtes), and only uncountable nouns can take partitive articles.
DesertGlass [contributor]
Um, when you say “only uncountable nouns can take partitive articles” … … isn’t “je mange de la tomate” using a partitive article? But “tomate” isn’t an uncountable noun, just used in an “uncountable sense” …
This difference is mostly semantics. Almost all nouns that can be used in a mass sense also can be used in a discrete sense, so when we say “mass noun”, it essentially means the mass sense of that noun. In your example, de la tomate means an uncountable mass of tomato, while une tomate means a particular tomato. So even though tomate can sometimes be a count noun, it is also considered a mass noun when used with a partitive.
There’s some debate about whether or not countable nouns can take partitives, and most of this comes from the question of whether or not des is a partitive. Regardless, for singular nouns, partitives can only be used for mass nouns. For instance, j’ai de la robe is nonsensical.
“Uncountable noun” and “mass noun” mean the same thing here, DesertGlass. Sorry about that confusion.
Bastou, I agree with you, though the Duo French team’s official stance is that des is exclusively indefinite except when used with plural-only mass nouns like pâtes.
Duolinguists 