# French grammar rule regarding "de" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-rule-regarding-de/723270 "2015-06-23T19:29:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-rule-regarding-de/723270/21 "2015-06-25T15:56:47Z")
> [@chiquitita](#): > > It gets worse: if you want to say that you are a meat-eater, you would say “je mange de la viande”, but if you put the same sentence in the negative, it becomes “je ne mange pas de viande”, without the definite article. > > Je bois un café = I drink / am drinking a cup of coffee > > Je bois le café = I drink / am drinking the cup of coffee (that has been mentioned before) > > Je bois du café = I am a coffee drinker (du being de+le, definite article) > > Je ne bois pas de café = I don’t drink coffee I agree with this, adding that “je mange de la viande” and “je bois du café” can also mean "I am eating meat’ and “I am drinking coffee,” respectively. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-rule-regarding-de/723270/22 "2015-06-25T23:30:15Z")
Thanks chiquitita. I had seen these types of expressions referred to as “compound nouns”. Perhaps “adjunct nouns” would be better. I’m familiar with the negative use of “de”. It is precisely the use of un, le, and de before the object(noun) that changes the meaning of a phrase as you pointed out with your examples. Thanks again. Thanks you all. Je bois un café = I drink / am drinking a cup of coffee Je bois le café = I drink / am drinking the cup of coffee (that has been mentioned before) Je bois du café = I am a coffee drinker (du being de+le, definite article) Je ne bois pas de café = I don’t drink coffee ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-rule-regarding-de/723270/23 "2015-06-26T04:34:25Z")
From m-w: **adjunct:** : something that is joined or added to another thing but is not an essential part of it grammar : a word or phrase (such as an adverb or prepositional phrase) that provides added information about the meaning of a verb in a sentence by expressing a relation of time, place, manner, etc. **compound** : to make (something, such as an error or problem) worse : to add to (something bad) finance : to pay interest on both an amount of money and the interest it has already earned : to form (something) by combining separate things * * * Based on those definitions, I’d say that in an expression such as “road rage”, “road rage” is a compound and “road” is an adjunct to “rage”, but I’d like confirmation from people who actually studied grammar in English. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-rule-regarding-de/723270/24 "2015-06-26T05:24:19Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Based on those definitions, I’d say that in an expression such as “road rage”, “road rage” is a compound and “road” is an adjunct to “rage”, but I’d like confirmation from people who actually studied grammar in English. There is a Wiki page on [English compound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_compound). It gives a fairly detailed compendium showing a whole bunch of ways compounds can be created in English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/french-grammar-rule-regarding-de/723270.md?page=1)