Word
Ils achètent de la crème et de l'huile.
Meaning
They are buying some cream and some oil.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ils achètent de la crème et de l'huile.
et
and
ils
they (masculine/mixed)
acheter
to buy
de la
some (partitive, feminine)
Questions & Answers about Ils achètent de la crème et de l'huile.
Why do we use de la before crème but de l' before huile?
Both crème and huile are feminine words, so they would normally both use the feminine partitive article de la (meaning "some"). However, because huile starts with a silent 'h', we must drop the 'a' in la and use an apostrophe to make it flow better. So, de la huile becomes de l'huile.
Can I just say Ils achètent crème et huile like we do in English ("They buy cream and oil")?
No, in French you almost always need an article before a noun. When talking about a portion or an uncountable quantity of something (like mass nouns for food), you must use the partitive articles (du, de la, or de l'). Even if we drop the word "some" in English, you cannot drop these articles in French!
Why does achètent have an accent mark (è) when the infinitive verb acheter (to buy) doesn't have one?
Acheter is a "stem-changing" verb. To make it easier to pronounce, French adds a grave accent (è) when the verb ending is silent. Since the -ent ending for the "they" form is completely silent, the spelling changes to achètent. You'll also see this accent in the I, you, and he/she/it forms (like j'achète).
How do I pronounce the beginning of this sentence? Do I pronounce the "s" in Ils?