Partitive Constructions: Expressing 'Some of' Without a Partitive Article

A partitive is a construction that picks out part of a mass or a group — some coffee, a bit of bread, a glass of wine, some of the apples. French famously has a dedicated partitive article (du café, de la viande, des pommes) that is obligatory before mass nouns in affirmative contexts. Portuguese does not. This absence is one of the most important structural differences between Portuguese and French — and a common source of confusion for French speakers, who reach for a word that simply is not there in Portuguese.

The good news: Portuguese covers the same communicative ground with five straightforward strategies, each appropriate to a particular context. Once you know them, you will never again ask where is the partitive in Portuguese? — you will have five alternatives to choose from.

The big picture: no du / de la / des

Compare side-by-side how French, Spanish, and Portuguese handle the same sentence:

French obligatorily marks café as partitive with du. Spanish and Portuguese leave the noun bare. Portuguese is closer to Spanish than to French in this respect.

In all three sentences, English has the option of inserting some/any (and Portuguese has its own ways to do so when needed). But for plain indefinite reference to a mass, bare is the default.

Strategy 1: Bare noun for generic or indefinite mass

This is the default and the most common strategy. When the mass referent is generic or unspecific, Portuguese uses the bare noun with no determiner.

The bare noun covers both English X and English some X / any X, depending on context. Bebes vinho? can be translated as Do you drink wine (in general)? or Do you want some wine (now)? — context disambiguates, and Portuguese does not need to commit to one reading on the surface.

Strategy 2: Um pouco de — a bit of, a little (mass nouns only)

When you want to specify a small quantity, use um pouco de + bare noun. This is the closest Portuguese comes to a systematic partitive marker, and French speakers will recognise it immediately — it parallels un peu de in French, but in Portuguese it is not in competition with a partitive article. It is simply how you say a bit of.

Note: um pouco de is for mass nouns. For count nouns, Portuguese uses alguns/algumas or uns/umas instead (see below).

The feminine variant uma pouca de (less common, slightly colloquial) exists in some regional PT-PT speech but is rare in standard:

Stick with invariable um pouco de in standard PT-PT.

Strategy 3: Algum/alguma + mass noun — some (singular, limited)

The singular indefinite determiner algum / alguma appears before mass nouns to convey some with a whiff of a certain amount of — somewhat more specific than the bare noun, somewhat less quantified than um pouco de.

In interrogatives and conditionals, algum/alguma often translates as English any:

Compare: tens café? (plain question about coffee existing), tens algum café? (do you have some — any at all — coffee? — slightly more insistent or specific).

Strategy 4: Uns / umas + plural count noun — some (a few)

For count nouns, the plural indefinite articles uns / umas do the partitive work: they mean some, a few — a small vague quantity.

Crucially, these are count nouns. Umas águas would mean a few bottled waters, not some water — because água is treated as count (separate glasses or bottles) rather than mass. For mass water, use um pouco de água or bare água.

Strategy 5: De + definite noun — some of the (specific portion)

When you want to say some *of the X — picking out a portion of a specific, identified mass — Portuguese uses *de + definite article + noun. The result contracts to do, da, dos, das.

This is the closest Portuguese comes to a true partitive of a known quantity. English uses some of the; Portuguese uses bare de + artigo definido.

Notice there is no um or alguma before do / da. The preposition de + definite article alone carries the partitive meaning. Adding um (bebi um do vinho) is ungrammatical — a common French-interference error.

You can strengthen the partitive with a quantifier if you want to specify the portion:

The pattern is: [optional quantifier] + de + definite article + noun.

Idiomatic partitive heads: measures and containers

Every language has a set of measure words — a slice of, a piece of, a glass of, a cup of, a kilo of, a litre of. Portuguese uses these productively, with de (uncontracted) linking the measure to the mass:

The construction is measure + de + bare mass noun. The mass noun takes no article. When the mass is specific (of the wine that...), we shift to de + definite noun again: uma garrafa do vinho que trouxeste = a bottle of the wine you brought.

The switch from de café (generic) to do café (specific) is a tidy little test of your partitive instincts.

Summary table: five strategies

Register notes

• (neutral / spoken PT-PT) All five strategies are normal in speech. Um pouco de and uns/umas are the most frequent.
• (colloquial PT-PT) Um bocado de (a bit of) competes with um pouco de and is very common in casual speech: um bocado de tempo, um bocado de pão.
• (formal / written) The de + definite construction is fully at home in writing: provaram do vinho servido à mesa.
• (French interference) French speakers instinctively reach for a partitive article before mass nouns. In Portuguese, this is almost always wrong — strip the partitive and use a bare noun or one of the five strategies above.

Contrast: French du / de la / des — what they become in Portuguese

For French learners of Portuguese, this comparison is indispensable:

The pattern: French du/de la/des → Portuguese zero or uns/umas or um pouco de or algum/a, depending on nuance.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Portuguese has no partitive article equivalent to French du/de la/des. Don't translate them literally.
• Default to the bare noun for generic mass or plural reference: quero café, comprei pão, tens chaves?
• Use um pouco de for a small quantity of a mass noun: um pouco de leite.
• Use algum/alguma for some / any of a mass noun, especially in questions and conditionals: tens algum pão?
• Use uns / umas for a few of a count noun: umas maçãs, uns livros.
• Use de + definite article for some of the (specific, known): bebi do vinho que trouxeste.
• Measure words link to mass via de: uma chávena de café, um copo de água, uma fatia de pão — but switch to do/da when the mass is specific: uma fatia do bolo que a Ana fez.
• French speakers: the biggest adjustment is removing the partitive article you reflexively insert. Portuguese is closer to Spanish in this respect.
• English speakers: where English often drops some (bare plurals and mass nouns), Portuguese does the same — the two languages align here, with um pouco de, algum, uns as optional specifiers.