LearnModule 2 · Lesson 24 of 30Basic User · CEFR A1, completedUnit 5 · La nourriture — food

Du, de la — some

Module 2 of the free French course (CEFR A1, completed), lesson 24 of 30: For things you take a portion of, French says "some of the": du pain (m). On this page: 7 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's lesson 24.

The words

French	English	Say it
du pain	some bread	dew PA(n)
de la soupe	some soup	duh lah SOOP
de l'eau	some water	duh LOH
des frites	some fries	day FREET
je mange du pain	I eat some bread	zhuh mah(n)zh dew PA(n)
tu veux…?	do you want…?	tew VUH
la confiture	the jam	lah koh(n)-fee-TEWR

Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.

Hear the words

Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.

La règle · The rule

For things you take a portion of, French says "some of the": du pain (m), de la soupe (f), de l'eau (before a vowel), des frites (plural).

Et aussi · And also

Je mange du pain. Tu veux de la salade? After ne…pas it all collapses to de: Je ne mange pas de pain.

Attention · Watch out

du, de la, de l' and des all collapse to plain de after ne…pas: je mange du pain, but je ne mange pas de pain.

Do it now — on paper

Say all 7 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the French spelling alone — begin with du pain.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the French.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 24 in Module 2 are the written half of this page.

This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.

Keep these words

Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.

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