Image: Québec, QC, Canada
Click here to find out about Québec
Forms: The partitif = the preposition de and the definite article (le, la, l’).
For example, In the above example, an English speaker could either say: I would like to add garlic… or I would like to add some garlic.
While the indefinite article (un, une, des) is used with countable quantities (un oeuf, deux oeufs ...), the partitive article is used before mass nouns, nouns that are indivisible or uncountable.
The partitive article designates a part of the whole. Note that depending on what you want to say, the same noun may be introduced by a definite, indefinite, or a partitive article. Compare these examples: some are about a whole thing, some about a part of something:
In negative sentences:
In negative sentences, like the indefinite article (un, une, des), the partitive articles also (du, de la, des, de l') change to de: masculine, feminine, singular, plural.
With expressions of quantity, use de with no article for masculine, feminine, singular, and plural.