Learn Hardcore French: Nous mangeons de la baguette avec du fromage.

You use the partitive when you’re talking about an unspecified quantity of something that you can’t easily count (bread, cheese, water, sugar, etc.).

If you said:

la baguette = the (specific) baguette
le fromage = the (specific) cheese

it would sound like you’re talking about a specific, identified baguette or cheese that both speaker and listener already know about, rather than “some bread and cheese” in general.

Why is it du fromage and not de le fromage?

Du is simply the contraction of de + le.

de + le fromage → du fromage

French always contracts de + le to du, and de + les to des. You cannot write de le; it’s grammatically wrong.

So:

du fromage = some cheese
des fromages = some cheeses / (several) cheeses

Why is baguette singular when in English we often say “bread” as a mass noun?

In French, the partitive article + singular noun often plays the same role as an English mass noun:

Nous mangeons de la baguette.
= We are eating (some) baguette / baguette bread.

The singular baguette here doesn’t mean one whole baguette; with de la, it means an unspecified amount of baguette.

English tends to use “bread” as a mass noun; French uses “du/de la + a singular noun” to express that idea of “some.”

Can I say Nous mangeons des baguettes instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, but the meaning changes:

Nous mangeons de la baguette.
→ We’re eating some baguette (bread), focusing on the substance, not the number.
Nous mangeons des baguettes.
→ We’re eating baguettes (plural loaves / pieces), focusing on countable items.

So:

Use de la baguette when you mean “some bread of the baguette type.”
Use des baguettes when you mean “actual baguettes,” as in several baguettes.

What’s the difference between Nous mangeons de la baguette and Nous mangeons une baguette?

Nous mangeons de la baguette.
→ Some baguette (unspecified quantity).
Nous mangeons une baguette.
→ We are eating one whole baguette (or at least treating it as one unit).

So une baguette is counting (one item), while de la baguette is non‑counting, like “some baguette bread.”

Why is it de la baguette (feminine) but du fromage (masculine)? How do I know the gender?

Because:

baguette is grammatically feminine → la baguette → de la baguette
fromage is grammatically masculine → le fromage → du fromage

Noun gender in French is mostly arbitrary and lexical: you have to learn the gender along with the word.

A useful habit is to learn words with their article:

une baguette (feminine)
un fromage (masculine)

Then:

partitive feminine: de la baguette
partitive masculine: du fromage

How would I say this in the negative? Does de la / du change?

In the negative, partitive articles usually become just de (or d’ before a vowel sound):

Nous ne mangeons pas de baguette avec du fromage.
= We do not eat baguette with cheese.

Note:

de la baguette → de baguette after ne … pas
But du fromage can stay du fromage if you’re only negating the first part:
- Nous ne mangeons pas de baguette avec du fromage.
  → We don’t eat baguette with cheese (but maybe we eat cheese in other ways).

If you want to negate both:

Nous ne mangeons pas de baguette ni de fromage.
→ We don’t eat baguette or cheese.

Could I say Nous mangeons du fromage avec de la baguette instead? Is the order important?

Yes, you can say:

Nous mangeons du fromage avec de la baguette.

The meaning is almost the same: “We eat cheese with baguette.”

Changing the order usually:

doesn’t change the basic meaning,
can slightly change what you’re focusing on (bread with cheese vs cheese with bread), but it’s subtle and both are perfectly natural.

What’s the difference between Nous mangeons de la baguette avec du fromage and Nous mangeons la baguette avec le fromage?

Nous mangeons de la baguette avec du fromage.
→ Some bread with some cheese (general, non‑specific).
Nous mangeons la baguette avec le fromage.
→ We are eating the baguette with the cheese (specific items already identified in the context).

Using la / le (definite articles) implies both speaker and listener know exactly which baguette and which cheese are being referred to (for example, “the baguette we bought this morning” and “the cheese from the fridge”).

How is mangeons pronounced? Do we say the final -s?

Mangeons is pronounced roughly like [mɑ̃-zhɔ̃]:

man-: nasal an sound (mɑ̃)
-ge-: like the “zh” sound in “measure”
-ons: nasal on sound (ɔ̃)

Important points:

The final -s is silent in mangeons.
There is no extra syllable at the end; it’s just one nasal vowel sound [ɔ̃].
Spelling -eons helps keep the hard g sound before -ons, but pronunciation is the same pattern as other -ons endings: one nasal vowel.

Why is it Nous mangeons and not Nous mangent or something else? How does the conjugation work?

Mangeons is the 1st person plural (we) present tense of manger:

Present of manger:

je mange (I eat)
tu manges (you eat, singular)
il / elle / on mange (he / she / one eats)
nous mangeons (we eat)
vous mangez (you eat, plural/formal)
ils / elles mangent (they eat)

So with nous, you must use mangeons.

The extra -e- in mangeons is there to keep the soft g sound before -ons.

Could I say On mange de la baguette avec du fromage instead of Nous mangeons…? What’s the difference?

Yes:

On mange de la baguette avec du fromage.
is very common in spoken French and usually means “we eat / we are eating baguette with cheese.”

Differences:

On
- 3rd person singular verb (on mange) is informal and very common in everyday speech.
Nous
- mangeons is more formal / standard and more common in writing or careful speech.

So:

In conversation: On mange de la baguette avec du fromage.
In a formal text or when you want to sound more “proper”: Nous mangeons de la baguette avec du fromage.

Why is avec used here? Could I use et instead?

avec = with (expresses accompaniment or combination)
et = and (just links two items)

In Nous mangeons de la baguette avec du fromage:

avec means the baguette and cheese are eaten together, as a combination (bread with cheese on it or together).

If you said:

Nous mangeons de la baguette et du fromage.
→ We eat baguette and cheese (both items), but it doesn’t necessarily say they are eaten together as a combination. It’s more neutral: we eat both.