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Mon cousin ne mange pas de gluten.

Mon cousin ne mange pas de gluten.
My cousin doesn't eat gluten.
From Lesson 46:Zero quantity (pas de)·French

Questions & Answers about Mon cousin ne mange pas de gluten.

Why is it pas de gluten instead of pas du gluten?
In French, when you talk about consuming an uncountable amount of something, you use a partitive article like du (meaning some). For example, Il mange du gluten means he eats gluten. However, in a negative sentence, du changes to de to show an absolute zero amount, meaning not any gluten at all.
Would it still be de if the food was feminine or plural?
Yes! In negative sentences expressing zero quantity, all partitive and indefinite articles (un, une, des, du, de la) change to just de (or d' before a vowel). So no meat (feminine) is pas de viande and no apples (plural) is pas de pommes.
Why are ne and pas separated in this sentence?
In French, the negative words ne and pas act like a sandwich around the conjugated verb. Here, the verb is mange (eats), so ne goes right before it and pas goes right after it to make ne mange pas.
If the cousin were female, how would this sentence change?
If you are talking about a female cousin, the French noun changes to cousine. Because the noun is now feminine, the possessive word for my changes from mon to ma. The sentence would become: Ma cousine ne mange pas de gluten.

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