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- Topic: French >
- "Il a de l'eau."
93 Comments
Yes, you are right, with a few contextual exceptions:
- cette rivière a une eau très propre (this river has a very clean water)
- tu es sale, tu as de la pomme sur la joue (you are dirty; you have some apple on your cheek)
But don't worry, as long as you have short sentences to translate, without any context, you can stick to the rules.
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It's not "de" it's De + article. (de la, du and des, because "du" is de+le and des is de+les)
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Countable nouns and uncountable nouns are not the same in French and in English. In French, it's better to talk about "indefinite quantity", because, even the notion of countable and uncoutable doesn't really exist (except for liquids), and you can still put articles in front of them. You can say "une eau", or "un lait" (a milk), depending on the context.
So, forget about "countable/uncountable" nouns in French, it doesn't really exist as you think. Only indeterminate quantity and "abstract nouns" makes sense in French grammar.
Je bois de l'eau = indefinite quantity.
Les eaux de la rivière sont rouges. The waters of this river are red.
No. As Sitesurf said. If I talk about an animal: It has water = Il a de l'eau (because no "it" for animals in French, but normal "he" and "she"), if you talk about a river, it has water = Elle a de l'eau, or a bucket, a plant, etc..
If you mean "ça a de l'eau", it's informal, and not very proper, "il a de l'eau" is the correct form.
It is not "de" but "de la" with the a elided in front of a word beginning with a vowel sound: de l'eau.
Du/de la/de l'/des are partitive articles meaning undetermined amount=(some). I put it within parentheses since the "some" is not always necessary in English whereas the partitive article is necessary in French.
In the absence of any article in English:
• Try adding “in general” to the end of your sentence, and if it works, use the definite article (le, la, l', les).
Ex: Water is essential to life = water (in general) is essential to life (in general) => L'eau est essentielle à la vie.
• Try adding "some" in front of the singular object, and if it works, use the partitive article (du, de la, de l').
Ex: He has water = he has some water => il a de l'eau (fem)
• Try adding "more than one" in front of the plural object, and if it works, use the plural indefinite article (des).
Ex: These are clear waters = these are (more than one) clear water => Ce sont des eaux claires.
I'm on my computer and I have this question no matter how many times I say it it won't give it to me? I'm getting really frustrated and I have to skip it sometimes why does it not understand me when I say it when I say it perfectly clear? Also they should have the three strikes your out but don't lose a heart rule on computer because I've done it 25 times without passing. This is BS!