du, de la, des - FRENCH HELP ME?

Question

what do these words mean, and how do i know which one to use?
I KNOW THIS IS SIMPLE
but my brat of a cousin is asking me for french help and I don't remember french very well =(

Answer 1

du some ex: du pain (bread)
de la some (féminin) ex: de la soupe
des some (plural) ex: des fruits

Answer 2

Salut!

Du, de la and des can be interpreted as "of (the)" or "some" depending on the usage (whether as a preposition or a partitive)

As a preposition, du, de la and des mean "of (the)"

Elle est du Canada (She is of Canada)
Je suis des Etats-Unis (I am of the United States)

As partitives, however, they take the meaning of "some".

Je veux du jambon (I want some ham)
Avez-vous de la bière? (Do you have some beer?)
Tu as des oeufs? (Do you have some eggs?)

While in English we usually leave out the "some" (Do you have eggs?), the use of the partitives are necessary in French.

Hope I helped.

Bonne chance!

Answer 3

as quickly as I used to coach that, that's what i grew to become into doing: I used to attraction to a huge camembert or a huge pie on the board. Then, i might make parts. Now, if the cake grew to become right into a pie, that's a female be conscious in Fr. l. a. tarte. whether that's le camembert, that's masculine. ok. Now, you're taking one component to THE PIE or OF THE CAKE. whether that's l. a. tarte: Je prends DE l. a. tarte. if this is the camembert or fromage, je prends DU fromage, Du camembert via fact du < de+ le. Now, if I take no longer something in any respect, then I stay out of the circle. good? If I stay out of the circle, i won't define what's in the circle (tarte ou fromage) hence, i do no longer want LE OR l. a.. ok so a techniques? Now if there's a vowel, like for eau (water). It does no longer be counted that eau is fem. for the reason that there's a vowel on the commencing up of the be conscious: so i take advantage of DE L'... De l'eau. in case you reside out of the circle the place water is (theoretically) then you definately can't define water: you may't use the definite article L'. Je bois de l'eau (i'm in the circle) Je ne bois pas d'eau (out of the circle) Je bois du vin (IN) Je ne bois pas de vin (OUT). Je mange de l. a. tarte. Je ne mange pas de tarte (OUT) Je mange des cerises. (IN) Je ne mange pas de cerise. (OUT). i'm hoping this facilitates. i think of that in case you ought to draw the pie and you next to it (like IN) and you a techniques faraway from it (out) then you definately will see that the definite article le, l. a., les, l' won't be able to be USED once you're no longer in the circle i.e. in the action of doing something with the item in question.

Answer 4

de = of

de le => du (masculine noun, singular)
de les=> des (plural nouns)
de la..stays as is (feminie noun, singular)

Le nez du chien (de + le) .
Le nez de la femme.
Le nez des enfants (de + les) .