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La forme négative (un/une + de)

I'm a little confused here. I'm only doing a beginners course and I have my first exam on Monday :woo:. So I'm just going over my notes and I have written "negative makes un/une into de/d' after the second half of the negative". But this makes no sense to me because on example phrases like, je fais de la natation, 'de' is used, but it's not a negative.
Or even, je n'aime pas du tout l'opéra, and that has an article as well :s-smilie:.

The only thing I can think of is that the "de/du/d'" here is something grammatical and has to be there, but then what is it with "une/un"?
Reply 1
Avatar for hissyfit
hissyfit
15
Original post by SpiritedAway
I'm a little confused here. I'm only doing a beginners course and I have my first exam on Monday :woo:. So I'm just going over my notes and I have written "negative makes un/une into de/d' after the second half of the negative". But this makes no sense to me because on example phrases like, je fais de la natation, 'de' is used, but it's not a negative.
Or even, je n'aime pas du tout l'opéra, and that has an article as well :s-smilie:.

The only thing I can think of is that the "de/du/d'" here is something grammatical and has to be there, but then what is it with "une/un"?

This might help,the website s good
http://french.about.com/library/prepositions/bl-devsdes.htm
Reply 2
Avatar for Xurvi
Xurvi
11
Well, it's like "I eat an apple", and "I don't eat any apple".

The "de" is the partitive, like in "je mange de la viande", "je bois de l'eau", etc. It expresses the fact that the complement is part of a whole. Je bois de l'eau -> You drink part of the water that exists. It's also used for abstract stuff as in "Aies du courage!".

Anyway, basically, you use that partitive article in French much like in English you would use "any" in a negation sentence. It doesn't mean when you see it it has to be a negation.
Reply 3
Avatar for SpiritedAway
SpiritedAway
OP
17
Ah okay, that makes sense :biggrin:

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