Du, de la, de l', des all become de or d' in negative sentences (partitive articles)

Hi Judith,

Les verbes d’état /verbes attributifs are verbs which denote a state of being, or a change in state of being, the verb ‘être’ being the one most used in language.

The list also include -

avoir l’air, paraître, sembler, rester, demeurer......

Unlike the transitive and intransitive verbs, which have direct/ indirect objects or not, the verbs of state have an attribute which can be an adjective, adverb or a nominal group which changes the state they describe.

Take a look at the updated Kwiziq lesson on ‘demeurer’ as an example..

https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/demeurer-can-be-used-with-avoir-or-etre-in-le-passe-compose-and-changes-meaning

Hope this helps!

Hi John,

Although 'ne..que' resembles a negative construction, it does not connote actual negation but rather restriction and does not follow the rules for the substitution of the partitive article in negative constructions. So, 'il ne veut que de la bûche' is perfectly correct.

Hope this helps.

Tom

Hi Tom et Chris

Merci pour ces réponses. Maintenant je comprends.

John

Hi marianne, 

Could you give me the full context to see if I can answer your question?

Hi Paul,

Well spotted!

In fact you can say both "C'est ma faute" or "C'est de ma faute".

The first one is considered more correct but you will hear both in French .

It is an idiomatic 'de' so hard to justify...

C'est ma faute, c'est ma faute, c'est ma très grande faute = Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

Hope this helps!

HI Sivavathana,

The answer would be 'Il boit du Coca-cola tous les jours'.

It would be the same for any beverage, e.g.

Il boit du lait, du vin, du champagne, de la bière, du Pineau des Charentes tous les jours...

Hope this helps!

Indeed Chris, "On boit de la bière , de la limonade et de la Vodka..."

Have been racking my brain to think of any other beverages which are feminine but these are the only ones I could muster...

Please feel free to add to the list ...

Sivavathana's comment is valid though as most are masculine which is something that a native speaker wouldn't necessarily appreciate as useful to a learner.

Tisane is feminine, also eau and champagne.

Champagne is masculine -

On boit du champagne....

Sorry, you're right about champagne.  I guess it just feels feminine to me.  

Absinthe also is feminine.

Bonjour Maddie !

In this case -  negative sentences - the des becomes de.

And de will become d' in front of a vowel or mute "h", for pronunciation reasons.

I hope that's helpful!
Bonne journée !

Hi Helen,

"Ils n'ont pas l'habitude de parler français" -- They are not in the habit of speaking French.

You don't use "de" in this case because that would signifiy that what comes after is part of a bigger thing (e.g. "un morceau du gâteau" -- a piece of the cake). Since there isn't something like a "bigger piece of habit" you don't use the preposition "de".

Hope that helps, -- Chris  (not a native speaker).

Yes, definitely. According to this pattern:

"Tu as du lait?" - "Non, je n'ai plus de lait." -- "Do you have some milk?" - No, I have no more milk."

-- Chris. 

Hi Helen,

As the expression is - 'avoir l'habitude de faire quelque chose', the le is maintained after the pas or it would not make any sense...

but I can understand your confusion...

Hi Paul,

C'est is the contraction of ce est. Est is third person singular form of être.