My shopping list

Question

J'ai besoin des fruits et des légumes.  Why was 'des' corrected to de?  Also, why cannot 'le temps' be used to say "now it's time to..." ?  The correct answer was l'heure.

Accepted Answer

Hi Andrea, 
Take a look at the answer to a similar question posed by Andrew -
https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/when-do-you-use-articles-with-avoir-besoin-de
 
Hope it helps!

Answer

This question gets asked many times: verbal phrases such as avoir besoin de or avoir envie de are not followed by the partitative article. In 99%, it will just be de+noun with no article. If there should be an article, it always signifies the specific and not the general meaning of the noun.

J'ai avoir besoin de chaussures. -- I need shoes.
J'ai avoir besoin des chaussures. -- I need the shoes. (NOT: I need some shoes)