in French, when should one use "d'argent", and when "de l'argent"? what is the difference?

Question

both are used when speaking about money, for example, "Est-ce que tu as de l'argent?" "Je n'ai pas beaucoup d'argent." i simply don't understand the rule of when to use one or the other. my professor often marks me wrong when i use either one.

Answer 1

D'argent basically means "of silver, silvery, silver's" -
La lune d'argent.
Silvery Moon.
La mine d'argent.
The silver's mine.

Sometimes "d' argent" could also mean "of money" as in the sentence "J'ai beaucoup d'argent" / I have a lot of money
but from the general context you should immediately guess wich is the effective meaning of "d'argent".
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De l'argent is a French construction with the partitive "de" (a bit of, some, etc) and argent here almost always means money :

Est ce que tu veux de l'argent?
Do you want some money ?
Je n'ai pas de l'argent.
I have no money.

but also here you may have a different meaning of "de l'argent" :

Une mine pour l'extraction de l'argent
A mine for the silver's extraction

Thus basically is the context of the sentence that should help you in understanding the difference of meaning.

Answer 2

At the beginning I thought like martox45 but a quick search gave me some expressions like question d'argent blanchiment d'argent etc... and if you use de l'argent only when what to say a bit of money it does not work for some expressions like la couleur de l'argent.
It's not easy
Let's say martox is right but be careful it's not working all the time.

Answer 3

Argent Definition

Answer 4

I don`t think that there`s no rule that will work for sure in this case.
Native speakers just know it because it sounds right.
When I was learning Italian, I tried to translate what sounds right in French into Italian, but it did not always work, although French and Italian are very similar languages.

sometimes it works if you use "de l'argent" for "some money", and "d'argent" for "money".

Answer 5

The answer is far trickier than the question...

1. it's one of those words that cannot be quantifiable - from a grammatical point of view, not financial.
2. it begins with a vowel.


In this case 'ARGENT', beginning with an vowel AND not quantifiable (from a grammatical point of view only.)

Je veux de l'argent. - I want some money. "DE L'" article used.

J'ai de l'argent. - I have some money.


IF you use the NEGATIVE in a sense. It changes "DE L'" to "D'" when it comes to unquantifiable objects.

Je ne veux pas d'argent. - I don't want ANY money.

Je n'ai pas d'argent. - I have NO money.

Je ne veux pas d'eau. - I don't want ANY water.


You with me so far? OK, now imagine if those unquantifiable objects are in fact quantified.

Let's say you know the amount of money, or what money you are talking about (a grant you are given, which you don't want to use, for example.)

THEN in THIS case you could say when talking in the negative;

Je n'ai pas besoin de l'argent. - I don't want THE money.

As opposed to the previous example;

Je ne veux pas d'argent. - I don't want ANY money.

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"Eau" (water) was used above, as an example to complement the examples about money. "Eau" like "argent" cannot be counted, and begins with a vowel.

Answer 6

one thing is that when using a word describing quantity like "beaucoup" in the positive sense "d'argent" is used. I have alot of money, J'ai beaucoup d'argent another example: I have a lot of friends: J'ai beaucoup d'amis otherwise if youre not using "beaucoup" that would be (I have friends, i have some friends, etc) J'ai des amis (des being the plural version of de l' (du when not in front of a vowel))

Answer 7

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
in French, when should one use "d'argent", and when "de l'argent"? what is the difference?

Answer 8

J'aime boire de l'eau I like to drink some water - If you say J'aime boire l'eau it is like saying I like to drink THE water ie all the water there is or every bit of water in the shop/world/whatever context

Answer 9

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"J'aime boire de l'eau" or "j'aime l'eau".