Language/French/Grammar/«-de-»-or-«-du-»,-«-de-la-»,-«-des-»-after-quantifiers
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« de » or « du », « de la », « des » after quantifiers
The indefinite article des and the partitive articles du, de la, des are omitted when a noun phrase follows one of the quantifiers:
Quantifiers with des, however, are those which are followed by des, du or de la:
- bien des clients
many customers
- la plupart de l'argent
most of the money
- une partie du travail
part of the work
When the quantifiers with de are followed by a noun with a definite article, this is not omitted.
Compare:
- Beaucoup d'étudiants (indefinite) dorment moins qu'ils ne le souhaitent
Many students sleep less than they would wish
- Beaucoup des étudiants interviewés (definite) dorment moins qu'ils ne le souhaitent
Many of the students interviewed sleep less than they would wish
Once you've mastered this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Non agreement of direct object numerals with coûter, peser and mesurer & Time adverbs.
Other Chapters[edit | edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]
- Comparative forms of adjectives
- Indirectly transitive in French but directly transitive in English
- Use of the definite article with quantities
- How to use half, third and quarter in French
- Negation
- Use of the definite article with names of languages
- Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Kings, queens and popes
- Conditional Mood and Future Tense
- Indefinite article
- Reflexive pronouns
- Verb forms — Conjugations
- Quand utiliser QUAND et QUANT
- Use of neutral le where no equivalent exists in English
- Gender of countries, towns, islands, rivers, regions and states
- Direct object quantifiers and « en »