One of the Shibblets has asked for help in resolving an argument with a classmate. The question revolves around articles.
For the phrase, “I want cheese”, one of them says it should be “Je veux du fromage” and the other contends that “Je veux fromage” is sufficient.
Which is correct and why?
And yes, this is the way that nerdy teenagers spend their long weekends, apparently.
In French, there is almost always an article before a noun.
Also, the partitive article “du” translates to “some” or “any”, even in english, you might say “I want some cheese” more often than simply “I want cheese”.
Really? I am re-learning French at the moment through a podcast and we’ve just done professions, and one of the points the teacher made was that the French often skip words that we use in English. In the example on the podcast, in English you would say ‘I am a teacher,’ but in French you say, ‘Je suis professeur.’
Je veux du fromage. If I remember my high school French teachers correctly, the sentence Je veux fromage would mean something more like “I want [all the] cheese [that exists, has existed, or will exist in the world]”. The partitive article de (in this case elided with the masculine definite article le to produce du) restricts the desire expressed in the sentence to a more limited (but still unspecified) quantity. According to my Collins Robert dictionary, de does not always need to be translated into English, but it sure as hell needs to be there in the French.
It should be je veux du fromage.
“Je veux fromage” sounds cave-manish. Like, “ugg…me want cheese.”
Statements regarding professions, occupations or titles are formulated as if the profession, occupation or title were an adjective instead of a noun. So no article in that case.
But, definitely, “Je veux du fromage” is the correct form. As stated by Olentzero, “du” is the contraction of “de le”; if we were talking about a substance with feminine gender (such as “compote” for apple sauce), it would be “Je veux de la compote”.
Note that the foregoing is for substances that can be measured, but not counted. If we were talking about an apple or a cookie, it would be “Je veux une pomme” or “Je veux un biscuit”, respectively.
I believe the correct form is Je veux manger du fromage et capituler comme un singe. 
Sure, but if it were plural then ‘de’ would make its comeback: “Je veux des pommes” - I want apples. I think the point to note hear is not so much whether an article is needed or not, but rather that the preposition ‘de’ is needed (along with a definite article) to express indefinite quantities.
That should be “I want some apples”.
I live in a French area and I’ve studied French for a long time. “Je veux du fromage” is correct. “Je veux fromage” is incorrect.
Removing the rust from my 30-years-ago French, it would definitely by “du fromage.”
However, wouldn’t it be better (more polite, at least) to say “je voudrais du fromage” (I would like some cheese) rather than “je veux du fromage” (I want some cheese?)
I’ve been taught that yes, “voudrais” is a polite thing to say. It’s what a lot of people say when ordering something in a restaurant.
I disagree - a translation of ‘je veux des pommes’ could but does not have to include ‘some’. The other way around, if you wanted to translate ‘I want apples’ into French, you would have to you use the preposition ‘de’. If you wanted to translate ‘I want some apples’, you could use ‘de’, but you might also use ‘quelques’.
Perhaps what bothers you here is that one might not say ‘I want apples’, finding it impolite (this echoes** Noone special**'s concern, who suggests using voudrais instead of veux). This, however, is more of a usage issue as it pertains to using ‘want’ in English (or French, for that matter), and does not really have anything to do with the grammatical rules surrounding the preposition ‘de’.
Wondering: Can you leave out the partitive if you mean to contrast two things, as in “Damn! I want cheese, not meat!”
You can remove the article when using “sans” (meaning “without”): “Je voudrais une assiette avec du fromage mais sans viande”.
More details on these various kinds of articles can be found over here (the page itself is in French).
Merci beaucoup!
Mmmm camembert avec buerre et confiture sur un baguette 
I’m sorry, but in the context of this thread I have to do this:
It’s “Miam, du camembert avec du beurre et de la confiture sur une baguette.”
Sorry, in this case you are incorrect. The partitive article “de” indicates an unknown quantity of something, usually food or drink, while English often omits these articles they are still inferred. Therefore, the proper translation is Je veux de pommes = I want (some) apples and vice versa.
The word “quelque(s)” may be used as an indefinite article but in this case it would not. Also it is more commonly used and understood to mean “a few” rather than “some”.
I agree, I missed the tense of the verb being considered impolite.:smack:
It really seems to me as though you say that I am incorrect, and then repeat almost the exact assertion that I make. You said that ‘I want apples’ is a wrong translation of ‘Je veux des pommes’; that it had to be ‘I want some apples’. I said that a translation of ‘je veux des pommes’ could but does not have to include ‘some’, and now you come out saying that I am incorrect, but that “Je veux de pommes = I want (some) apples” - which is exactly what I said. (except that I said ‘des’ - I don’t think ‘de’ is right, you need to add ‘les’ here to get ‘des’).
Is the only disagreement you have with me that ‘Je veux quelques pommes’ is not a correct translation of ‘I want some apples’, and that it rather means ‘I want a few apples’?
Also, how is quelque an indefinite article? Un and une are indefinite articles, quelque is pretty simply an adjective as far as I can tell; but then again I am not familiar with ‘de’ as an article either - for me it is a preposition.