Use of the partitif

Question

In the sentence, Moi, je préfère la bière blonde, Julien préfère la bière brune et Max ne boit que de la bière blanche, the speaker and Julien prefer LA bière but Max drinks only DE LA bière.   Why the use of the partitf for Max ?

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Frank, 
It has nothing to do with who is speaking but because of the verbs used.
The verb 'préférer' (to prefer) typically uses the definite article (le, la, l', les) rather than the partitive article.
This is because you usually compare specific items or categories rather than undefined quantities when expressing a preference.
The partitive article here refers to an undefined quantity of drink.
So in the case of 'boire' (or 'manger') it will be -
du, de la, de l', des.
Hope this helps!

William Strahan · Answer

Moi and Julien's preferences are given, while Max is said to specifically only "drink" white beer (the French way: drink [some]/[of the] ...).

Laura Garbe · Answer

I think moi and Julien, by talking about preferences, are referring to the general concept of blonde/brune beer, so they use the definite article la. Whereas Max is drinking the beer, so he gets the de in front of it?

Anne Davies · Answer

This pattern is true of other verbs of preference - you may be more familiar with the use with aimer + definite article for food or drink.

Ref:Using le, la, l', les before nouns when generalising (definite articles)