"He lost weight because he only eats lettuce."

Translation: Il a maigri parce qu'il ne mange que de la laitue.

[angus390025]

Il a perdu du poids parce qu'il ne mange que de la laitue.

[Z814doUD]

when is lettuce plural and when singular????

[jessArdeche]

Why 'de la' and not just 'la'?

[liofla]

That would be "He lost weight because he only eate the lettuce"

[Jojo553168]

Look for partitive article here.

[Dave962976]

Thank you, this article is VERY helpful!

[Sucy-en-Brie94]

Il a perdu du poids car il ne mange que de la laitue. Accepted :)

[ballarat]

Why is "Il a perdu du poids parce il ne mange que de la laitue." not accepted?

[Nathan173901]

You omitted que in parce que.

[ballarat]

Comme d'hab je fais toujours tout trop vite ! Merci Nathan !

[AshokKanet]

In a negative sentence, should the partitive article de la (some) not be replaced with de?

Any comments?

[Nathan173901]

This sentence isn't a negative one. It doesn't contain il ne mange pas ("he does not eat), but il ne mange que ("he only eats").

[AshokKanet]

ne...que is also a negative pair.

Here is a list of common French negative pairs:

ne..pas >"not"

ne..guère > "hardly"

ne..ni..ni > "neither...nor"

ne..plus > "not anymore, no more"

ne..rien > "not..anything, nothing"

ne..jamais > "not ever, never"

ne..aucun > "not one, none"

ne..personne > "not anybody, nobody"

ne..null art > "not anywhere, nowhere"

ne..que > "not but, only"

Hope this helps.

[Nathan173901]

No, it's called restrictive, although some people tend to call it a type of negative. Anyhow, unlike with negations (or other types of negations if you will), you use partitive articles with it.

[AshokKanet]

Thank you,

Vous avez raison.

I stand corrected.

[Artur443035]

on peut dit de la salade au lieu de la laitue?

[GraemeSarg]

Not exactly the same thing, is it?