partitive article

See also more information about the French partitive article.

The French partitive article is often translated as some, but often simply omitted in English.

The partitive article takes the following forms:

Partitive articles are used with mass nouns.

Partitive articles, however, derive from Vulgar Latin de illo, meaning (some) of the.

An invariable partitive article also exists: des: des vacjis - some cows.

Notice that except after a negative verb, the partitive article is formed by combining the preposition de (of, from) with the definite article.

The partitive article is similar to the indefinite article, but is used for uncountable singular nouns.

A partitive article is a type of indefinite article used with a mass noun such as water, to indicate a non-specific quantity of it.

Partitive articles are used in French and Italian in addition to definite and indefinite articles.

Like the indefinite article, the partitive article becomes de (or d' if before a vowel) after a negative verb other than être and before a plural noun preceded by an adjective.

Also note that in the plural, and after a negative verb, the indefinite and partitive articles take the same form; this makes sense, as there is no clear difference in meaning in these cases.

French has three articles: a definite article, corresponding in many cases to English the; an indefinite article, corresponding to English a/an; and a partitive article, used roughly like some in English .

A partitive article is used (and in French, required) whenever a bare noun refers to specific (but unspecified or unknown) quantity of the noun, but not when a bare noun refers to a class in general.

Haida also has a partitive article -gyaa, referring to "part of something or... to one or more objects of a given group or category," e.g. tluugyaa uu hal tlaahlaang 'he is making a boat (a member of the category of boats).'