Breakdown of Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète, mais Marie choisit la confiture.
Questions & Answers about Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète, mais Marie choisit la confiture.
French nouns have grammatical gender: masculine or feminine.
- beurre (butter) is masculine, so it takes le: le beurre
- confiture (jam) is feminine, so it takes la: la confiture
There’s no logical reason you can deduce from English; you have to learn each noun’s gender with the word:
- le beurre
- la confiture
With verbs of liking, preference, and general choice (like aimer, préférer, adorer, détester, choisir when talking in general), French usually uses the definite article: le, la, les.
- Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète.
= Paul prefers peanut butter (as a type of thing, in general). - Marie choisit la confiture.
= Marie chooses jam (in general / as her usual choice).
If you say du / de la, you’re emphasizing “some (quantity of)”:
- Paul prend du beurre de cacahuète.
= Paul is having some peanut butter (a portion, right now).
In this sentence, we’re talking about their preferences, so le / la is correct.
You can say it, but it changes the meaning.
Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète.
= His preference is for peanut butter in general (as opposed to jam, honey, etc.).Paul préfère du beurre de cacahuète.
Would usually be understood as:
“In this situation, he prefers to have some peanut butter (rather than something else).”
It sounds more like a concrete, situational choice of quantity, not a general taste.
For a general statement of preference, keep le / la / les.
In French, when one noun modifies another (like X butter, chocolate cake), it’s usually noun + de + noun.
- beurre de cacahuète = butter of peanut → peanut butter
- gâteau au chocolat / gâteau de chocolat = chocolate cake
- jus d’orange = orange juice
Using à often suggests “intended for” or “with the taste/smell of”, not the main ingredient:
- sandwich au beurre de cacahuète = a sandwich with peanut butter
- glace à la vanille = vanilla ice cream
So for the substance itself, beurre de cacahuète is the normal pattern.
In French, when you name a product made from something, the ingredient is often in the singular after de:
- beurre de cacahuète (peanut butter)
- soupe de tomate (tomato soup)
- jus de pomme (apple juice)
The idea is “butter of peanut” as a general substance, not “butter of peanuts (many)”. Plural after de is used when you really mean several distinct items:
- un sac de cacahuètes = a bag of peanuts (several peanuts)
They’re two different verbs:
préférer = to prefer (to like better)
- Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète.
Paul prefers peanut butter.
- Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète.
choisir = to choose (to pick, to select)
- Marie choisit la confiture.
Marie chooses jam.
- Marie choisit la confiture.
In many contexts you could use either, but the nuance is:
- préférer talks about a preference, often general/habitual.
- choisir talks about an actual choice in a situation (this time she takes jam).
In this sentence, it sounds like:
- Paul’s usual taste is for peanut butter.
- In this situation, Marie opts for jam.
Préférer and choisir are the infinitives (“to prefer”, “to choose”).
Here we need the present tense, 3rd person singular for Paul and Marie.
Conjugations:
PRÉFÉRER (to prefer), present tense
- je préfère
- tu préfères
- il/elle/on préfère
- nous préférons
- vous préférez
- ils/elles préfèrent
CHOISIR (to choose), present tense
- je choisis
- tu choisis
- il/elle/on choisit
- nous choisissons
- vous choisissez
- ils/elles choisissent
So:
- Paul préfère
- Marie choisit
The infinitive is préférer (é–é). In many -érer verbs, the accent changes in some forms to keep the pronunciation consistent.
For préférer:
- je préfère, tu préfères, il/elle préfère, ils/elles préfèrent
→ é changes to è in the syllable that gets stressed in speech - nous préférons, vous préférez
→ the accent stays é
This change (é → è) keeps the vowel sound “open” before a pronounced consonant.
Spelling reflects that pronunciation shift.
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:
Paul aime le beurre de cacahuète.
= Paul likes peanut butter.Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète.
= Paul prefers peanut butter (compared to something else, like jam).
So:
- aimer = like / love (no explicit comparison)
- préférer = prefer (there’s an implied comparison: prefers X to Y)
In this sentence, préfère nicely matches the contrast with Marie’s choice of jam.
mais is a conjunction meaning but. It introduces a contrast:
- Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète, mais Marie choisit la confiture.
= Paul prefers peanut butter, but Marie chooses jam.
Pronunciation:
- mais is pronounced like English “may” [mɛ] (no “s” sound at the end).
Don’t confuse it with:
- mes (my, plural) – same pronunciation
- mai (May, the month) – same pronunciation
They sound the same but are distinguished by context and spelling.
French usually places a comma before coordinating conjunctions like mais, et, ou when they join two full clauses (each with its own subject and verb).
Here we have:
- Clause 1: Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète
- Clause 2: Marie choisit la confiture
They’re linked by mais, so a comma before mais is standard:
- Paul préfère … , mais Marie choisit …
In informal writing, some people omit the comma, but the version with the comma is considered more correct.
Yes. You can say:
- Marie choisit la confiture, mais Paul préfère le beurre de cacahuète.
The meaning and grammar stay the same; you just change which information comes first. Use this if you want to emphasize Marie’s choice before Paul’s preference.
In French, a noun almost always needs some kind of article or determiner, even in general statements. So you normally say:
- la confiture (the jam / jam in general)
- de la confiture (some jam)
- une confiture (a [jar of] jam)
Leaving the noun bare (∅ confiture) is usually wrong in French, unlike English which can say “She chooses jam.” Here, because it’s a general choice:
- Marie choisit la confiture.
The definite article la marks “jam” as a general category.