for example,
« I didn’t eat enough of the cake » - meaning a specific cake, rather than general cake. In this case, is it allowed to say
« Je n’ai mangé pas assez du gateau »
?
Look at the different way to express ''not enough'':
Je n'ai pas assez de lait.
I don't have enough milk.
Elle ne court pas assez vite.
She doesn't run fast enough.
Il n'est pas assez grand.
He's not tall enough.
Not + [adjective / adverb] + enough = ne ... pas assez + [adjectif / adverbe]
Note that "assez" is always placed before the adjective / adverb it applies to (unlike in English).
Not enough (of) + [noun] = ne ... pas assez de/d' + [noun]
Note also that "de" in front of nouns never becomes du, de la, de l' or des.
It will however become d' in front of a vowel or mute h.
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
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Q&A Forum 3 questions, 7 answers
FahadKwiziq community member
How do you use « ne.. pas assez de » when talking about a specific thing?
Asked 6 months ago
Hi Fahad,
Your sentence syntax is incorrect as it should be -
Je n'ai pas assez mangé du gâteau
but I would probably have said -
Je n'ai pas assez mangé de ce gâteau
Fahad asked:View original
How do you use « ne.. pas assez de » when talking about a specific thing?
for example,
« I didn’t eat enough of the cake » - meaning a specific cake, rather than general cake. In this case, is it allowed to say
« Je n’ai mangé pas assez du gateau »
?
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ArndisKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Du or de
Why isn't it "du lait" instead of "de lait"?
Asked 1 year ago
Hi Arndís,
If you mean in the sentence :
Je n'ai pas assez de lait.
it is because of the 'pas' . (always pas ...de )
Hope this helps!
Chris Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Whenever you relate to a specific quantity, you don't use the article and du/de la/des turns into de. And not having something, i.e., having zero of it, is also a specific quantity. Hence in negations you just use de.
J'ai du lait. -- I have milk. (no specific quantity, hence du)
J'ai un peu de lait. -- I have a bit of milk. (un peu is a specification of quantity, hence de).
Je n'ai pas de lait. -- I don't have milk. (no milk is also considered a quantity, hence de).
-- Chris (not a native speaker).
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AdrienneKwiziq community member
pronunciation of "pas assez" - should the 's' elide into 'assez'?
Asked 2 years ago
LauraKwiziq team member
Bonjour Adrienne,
First, a quick note about terminology: "elide" means to get rid of (as in je + ai = j'ai, the e is elided). But what you're asking about is liaisons: should there be a liaison between pas and assez? And the answer is that this type of liaison is optional: you can pronounce it for more formal French, or not pronounce it for less formal French.
See my lesson on liaisons for more info.
AndyKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
This is the dated computer generated voice text to speech voice from Google Translate, which still remains for a few audios. I'd put it down more to something which would have a liaison in standard French but is dropped in more familiar colloquial settings.
AndyKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
I would expect Google to give standard pronunciation rather than casual, so I expect this may have been a glitch at the time.
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