Forms:
| masculine: | |
| before a consonant and aspirated h | du |
| before a vowel and silent h | de l' |
| feminine: | |
| before a consonant and aspirated h | de la |
| before a vowel and silent h | de l' |
| plural of both genders: | des |
Partitive article is used to refer to some undefined part or quantity of a substance, an uncountable matter: boire de l'eau (drink water), manger du pain (eat bread). It occurs less frequently before abstract nouns.