From the breakfast scene to your own sentence
Watched our breakfast Short? Try choosing the words yourself before looking at the answers. Each question supplies a meaning so that you know whether the speaker wants some, none or only one thing.
Compare some, none and a different thing
For an unspecified amount, use du café, de la crème or de l’eau. Use des œufs for an unspecified number of eggs: here des is plural indefinite, rather than partitive.
For an ordinary direct-object negative meaning “none”, use de or d’: Je ne bois pas de café. Before a vowel, use d’.
Identifying something after être keeps the article: Ce n’est pas du café. A contrast can also keep it: Je ne bois pas du café, mais du thé. That contrasts the drinks. It is different from simply saying you drink no coffee. Ne…que means “only” and keeps the article too.
These distinctions follow the OQLF explanation of de in negative sentences. The Académie française entry for du and des describes the partitive forms. Neither organization endorses this exercise.
Practise with eight sentences
Choose before opening each answer. You can use a pen and paper or answer aloud. No account is needed.
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I am drinking some coffee. Choose du or de.
Je bois ___ café.
Check sentence 1
Je bois du café.
Du introduces an unspecified amount of the masculine noun café.
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I drink no coffee at all. Choose du or de.
Je ne bois pas ___ café.
Check sentence 2
Je ne bois pas de café.
This is the ordinary negative statement about the drink, so use de.
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I am adding some cream. Choose de la or du.
J’ajoute ___ crème.
Check sentence 3
J’ajoute de la crème.
Crème is feminine. This affirmative sentence uses de la.
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I want no eggs at all. Choose des or d’.
Je ne veux pas ___œufs.
Check sentence 4
Je ne veux pas d’œufs.
The affirmative des œufs becomes d’œufs here: none are wanted, and œufs starts with a vowel.
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I am drinking some water. Choose de l’ or d’.
Je bois ___eau.
Check sentence 5
Je bois de l’eau.
The affirmative partitive form before a vowel is de l’.
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I have no water at all. Choose de l’ or d’.
Je n’ai pas ___eau.
Check sentence 6
Je n’ai pas d’eau.
The ordinary negative uses d’ before the vowel in eau.
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This is not coffee; it is tea. Choose du or de.
Ce n’est pas ___ café, c’est du thé.
Check sentence 7
Ce n’est pas du café, c’est du thé.
The noun identifies the drink after être. Keep du.
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I drink only coffee. Choose du or de.
Je ne bois que ___ café.
Check sentence 8
Je ne bois que du café.
Ne…que restricts the choice to coffee; it does not mean no coffee. Keep du.
Make two breakfast replies
Close the answers. First say that you want some tea. Then say that you want no cream at all. Change the drink or food and keep the intended meaning clear.
Compare two written replies
Je veux du thé. Je ne veux pas de crème.
I want some tea. I do not want any cream. These are separate practice models, not recordings from the Short.
For a polite order and a café follow-up, continue with coffee-ordering practice or try the First transactions role-plays. For further written study, choose English or Spanish explanations and try the free 24-page main-course sample. The sample is a different lesson; it is not an extended du/de answer sheet.
This guide and its original exercises were prepared with AI assistance. The page does not record your voice or provide a language assessment.