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

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

 

Il ne veut que de la bûche. -- He only wants log-cake.
Il ne veut pas de bûche. -- He doeesn't want log-cake.

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!

Thanks Cécile, that's very helpful. I'm encouraged by my experience that "de ma faute" didn't sound quite right. Maybe I'm starting to develop an ear for French! Paul.

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!

Thank you so much.. It helped me a lot.. After your response i underdtood that all drinks are masculine gender.. 

De la bière!! ;) -- Chris.

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.

 

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 !

I'm not sure why when I post questions, the body doesn't post but here's the rest of the question: I'm thinking that "de" follows pas before nouns( except when using etre.) So would this sentence be correct: "Ils n'ont pas d'habitude de parler francais." Or should it be "ils n'ont pas de l'habitude de parler francais"? I actually had a French speaker tell me there is no "de" and it's "Ils n'ont pas l'habitude de parler francais. Help!:)

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).

Chris, thank you for this. I love the logic about it not being "part of a bigger thing". Would you say the majority of time, we would use "pas de" before a noun?

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 - I'm not sure if I've understood your question but 'est' (in C'est and Ce n'est pas) is être.

Many thanks Gruff. Of course you are correct. Still struggling with etre and avoir.

Pleasure. In that case, I'd suggest you add these two lessons to your notebook:
Conjugate être in Le Présent (present tense)">Conjugate être in Le Présent (present tense)">Conjugate être in Le Présent (present tense)">Conjugate être in Le Présent (present tense)

Conjugate avoir in Le Présent (present tense)">Conjugate avoir in Le Présent (present tense)">Conjugate avoir in Le Présent (present tense)">Conjugate avoir in Le Présent (present tense)

There are add buttons on the lessons, and then you can go to your notebook (the bookmark icon in the top right) and practise them from there.

Just keep kwizzing until you feel you've mastered them.

Hope that helps.

Hi Paul,

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

Bonjour Anish, This is the lesson statement that most aptly fits your question: ATTENTION: This rule does NOT apply to sentences using the verb être, with which the partitive article doesn't change. C'est du sel de Guérande ? -Non, ce n'est pas du sel de Guérande. Is that Guerande salt? -No, it's not Guerande salt. C'est de l'huile d'olive ? -Non, ce n'est pas de l'huile d'olive. Is this olive oil? -No, this is not olive oil. J'espère que cela vous aidera. Ron

Bonjour Mary ! This was a mistake, thanks you so much for letting us know! The English has now been edited accordingly :) Merci et à bientôt !

Bonjour Bruce ! This case is actually quite different, as the affirmative sentence would be "Elle a les yeux bleus", so the negative equivalent would still be "Elle n'a pas *les* yeux bleus". Look at our related lesson: Using le, la, les with body parts and clothing (definite articles) I hope that's helpful! À bientôt !

Bonjour! Merci bien pour votre réponse. I had reviewed the lesson you mention. I suppose it could be inferred that a definite article should be used for one's own body parts in the negative but it didn't specifically address it. It was my understanding that a definite article should be used, even in the negative, but my teacher says that this is wrong. Can you provide a reference that I can use to show my teacher? L'Académie française, peut-être? Merci. Bruce