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Year 8

Food shopping: partitive articles 'du, de la, de l', des'

Learning outcomes

I can describe what I buy and eat using the partitive and indefinite articles.

I can pronounce and spell the sound-symbol correspondence [th].

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New
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Year 8

Food shopping: partitive articles 'du, de la, de l', des'

Learning outcomes

I can describe what I buy and eat using the partitive and indefinite articles.

I can pronounce and spell the sound-symbol correspondence [th].

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. [th] sounds like 'thé'.
  2. The verbs 'acheter' and 'peser' have a spelling change in the present tense from 'e' to 'è' affecting pronounciation.
  3. Un/une/des is for whole items; the partitive article du/de la/de l' is for parts. It must not be missed out in French.
  4. De + definite article means, e.g. 'of the', 'from the'. The partitive looks identical but its meaning is 'some'.
  5. The word for 'some' changes depending on the gender/number/spelling of the noun it describes.

Keywords

  • [th] - pronounced as in 'thé'

  • Partitive article - refers to parts of things; often means 'some' in English

Common misconception

'Some' can be left out in French just like it can in English.

Always use an article before food nouns in French, if it is a whole item, use the indefinite article and if it's uncountable or part of an item, use the partitive article du, de la or de l'.


To help you plan your year 8 french lesson on: Food shopping: partitive articles 'du, de la, de l', des', download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

If students would benefit from an independent writing activity, C3 could be easily adapted to be a writing task with the grid as a scaffold and students could use reference material to add food nouns to their repertoire.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Put the numbers in ascending order (smallest to biggest).
1 - un
2 - trois
3 - cinq
4 - dix
5 - treize
6 - quinze
7 - vingt
Q2.
How do you say 'quite' in French?
Correct answer: assez
aussi
notre
très
un peu
Q3.
Match the verbs in English and French.
Correct Answer:emporter,to take with
tick

to take with

Correct Answer:manger,to eat
tick

to eat

Correct Answer:proposer,to suggest
tick

to suggest

Correct Answer:travailler,to work
tick

to work

Correct Answer:traverser,to cross
tick

to cross

Correct Answer:voyager,to travel
tick

to travel

Q4.
Put the sentence 'I am Swiss, I live in Switzerland' in the correct order in French.
1 - je
2 - suis
3 - suisse
4 - j'
5 - habite
6 - en
7 - Suisse
Q5.
What is the feminine form of 'hard working' in French?
Correct Answer: travailleuse
Q6.
What kind of article is the word 'a/an'?
Correct Answer: indefinite article, the indefinite article

6 Questions

Q1.
What's the French word for bread?
fromage
glace
natation
Correct answer: pain
travail
Q2.
Match the verbs in French and English.
Correct Answer:j'achètes,I buy
tick

I buy

Correct Answer:tu achètes,you buy (singular)
tick

you buy (singular)

Correct Answer:elle achète,she buys
tick

she buys

Correct Answer:nous achetons,we buy
tick

we buy

Correct Answer:vous achetez,you buy (plural)
tick

you buy (plural)

Correct Answer:ils achètent,they buy
tick

they buy

Q3.
Put the sentence 'There's (some) pizza on the table' into the correct order in French.
1 - il y a
2 - de
3 - la
4 - pizza
5 - sur
6 - la
7 - table
Q4.
Which drink in French helps us remember the [th] sound?
Correct Answer: thé
Q5.
Match the partitive articles with the nouns.
Correct Answer:du,poisson
tick

poisson

Correct Answer:de l',eau
tick

eau

Correct Answer:de la,glace
tick

glace

Correct Answer:des,euros
tick

euros

Q6.
Translate 'he's buying (some) cake' into French.
Correct Answer: Il achète du gâteau.

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