Hi
Wherever I look, French people always talk about drinking “une tasse de thé”, never “une tasse du thé”. Yet all grammar books in English (I couldn’t find any helpful explanation in French) tell you that when you’re being served a cup of tee or coffee it is correct to use “du thé”. Which is correct?. I hope some native speakers can weight in on this point.
I’m not a French speaker (but I am Canadian :)) but “une tasse du thé” would literally translate as “a cup of the tea”. “Une tasse de thé” is the correct translation of “a cup of tea” as it does not include the definite article le.
Du can have two separate meanings:
Meaning (a): “of the” (with a masculine object)
the front wheel of the bicycle -> la roue avant du vélo or la roue avant de la bicyclette
Meaning (b): “some” or “an undetermined amount of” (an uncountable object)
she served me some tea -> elle m’a servi du thé
the victim lost some blood -> la victime a perdu du sang
If the amount is determined, you normally use “de”
he served me a cup of coffee -> il m’a servi une tasse de café
But in some circumstances, you can end up reverting to meaning (a), just like in English
he served me a cup of the wine he made in his garage -> il m’a servi une coupe du vin qu’il a fait dans son garage
You are correct. Thank you.
As shown in Heracles’ post, doing a word-for-word translation is rife with pitfalls. Usage of the article in French is not exactly the same as English.
The books mentioned by davidmich are correct *if *you mean “some tea.”
Thirded.
“Une tasse DU thé” would refer to the very specific kind of tea that is now on the table. I really don’t think I’ve ever said this in my life as it’s both extremely specific and painfully obvious in a real-life situation. I cannot even imagine a context in which you’d say this.
“Une tasse DE thé” is more general and, de facto, the expression we’ll use in 99.999% of real-life situations.
However, “Je vais prendre DU thé” (unspecified quantity) is the only correct structure.
As I understand it, “Voulez-vous du thé?” would be correct, as would “Voulez-vous une tasse de thé?”. “Would you like some tea?” versus “Would you like a cup of tea?”
Indeed, both of your sentences are correct.
Back to the OP, I’ve just thought of an exception.
As I said, “une tasse DE thé” is correct in the overwhelming majority of cases. But (this is French after all) if your friend Julien brings some tea to a place where there is already another variety of tea, you’ll definitely say “Je vais boire une tasse DU thé que Julien a apporté” because here, you’re talking about a specific kind of tea : the one that Julien brought, as opposed to the one that was already there.
And when ordering, it would be correct to say “Du thé, s’il vous plaît,” correct? (Assuming you’re not in a high-falutin’ place with 20 different varieties of tea).
Unless it’s a very formal dinner, in which case this verbless sentence may be considered a bit abrupt, that’s perfectly ok.
In French, expressions of quantity, as they’re called, rarely take anything but de.
So, it’s une tasse de thé, but also un peu de thé, un litre de thé, deux livres de thé, beaucoup de thé, trop de thé, and so on.
But if using the nakedly-informal “Du thé” all by itself, it’s different. It’s the French equivalent of an English person just saying the single word “Tea” (in a context like a restaurant order for example).
[je bois] du thé is partitive. Compare : je ne veux pas de thé / je voudrais un peu de thé
I’m highly dubious of the following example, but I did find it online and made a note of it. I just wanted to put the matter to rest. If the following is incorrect, as I suspect it is, how would a French customer ask a waiter to remove the old cup of tea on his table as he is about to order fresh tea?
une tasse du thé=a served cup of tee
une tasse de thé…a cup with tea in it (in other words, not served)
Pourriez-vous enlever cette tasse de thé, s’il vous plaît ?
In my opinion, the distinction is irrelevant : Une tasse du thé is incorrect, plain and simple, except perhaps in the ridiculously specific situations I mentioned earlier.
Another illustration of de vs du:
le coup de grâce vs le coup du lapin
Thank you all. Very helpful.