Je veux du pain, mais je n'ai pas de fromage.

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Breakdown of Je veux du pain, mais je n'ai pas de fromage.

• le pain: the bread
• avoir: to have
• le fromage: the cheese
• vouloir: to want
• du: some
• mais: but
• n'... pas: not

Questions & Answers about Je veux du pain, mais je n'ai pas de fromage.

Why do we use du instead of de or un in "Je veux du pain"?

In French, du is a partitive article meaning “some” and indicates an unspecified amount of bread. You would use un (a or one) only if you wanted to talk about a single loaf or unit, and de is generally used after negation or certain expressions. Here, du captures the idea of “some bread” rather than a specific counted piece.

Why does the sentence change to de in the negation: "Je n’ai pas de fromage"?

After a negative, French grammar typically requires de (without any article) instead of du, de la, or des. It’s a rule that simplifies the partitive and indefinite articles into de (or d’ if the next word starts with a vowel) whenever you say something is not present or doesn’t exist.

What does the n’ in "n’ai pas" stand for?

The n’ is a contracted form of ne, which is the first part of the French negation. It shortens to n’ when the following word begins with a vowel or a silent “h.” So, je n’ai pas is actually je ne ai pas in its full form, though in contemporary French, people don’t spell it out that way.

Can we replace mais with some other French word for “but”?

Yes, there are synonyms in French like cependant, toutefois, and pourtant, but mais is the most straightforward, common equivalent for the English “but.” The choice depends on the nuance you want to express; mais is typically used in everyday conversation.

Why wouldn’t we use les or un with fromage here?

You’d only use les fromages if you were talking about cheeses in general or a specific group of cheeses. Similarly, un fromage would refer to one cheese or one piece of cheese. In this sentence, you want to express that you have no cheese at all, hence the rule about negation forces de and keeps it indefinite.