De l' vs d'

Question

I just did a quiz and got an answer wrong. I answered d' in front of eau but the correct answer was de l'.If that is the case, why do the French say carafe d'eau and not carafe de l'eau?

Maarten Kamp · Answer

Carole,

this can a difficult topic to get your head around initially.

Partly, I think this comes from the fact that it is almost always the case that nouns in French are preceded by an article or other recognised determiner, and here you have encountered one of the prominent exceptions to this rule !

However, in simple terms :

1. I want (some) water - je veux de l’eau. Partitive needed in French, although ‘ some ‘ is optional and can be implicit in English

2. I want a jug of water - je veux un carafe d’eau. No partitive needed in French - just as in English it would be very unusual to say ‘ I want a glass of some water ‘

The links below to Laura Lawless site are useful for more detailed examples and explanations.

The 2nd link reference is to discussion of various descriptors of quantity that will ( usually ) not be followed by the partitive/indefinite form. There are some exceptions, as noted in the lessons.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/de-vs-du-de-la-des/

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/expressions/expressions-of-quantity/