avoir besoin de, avoir besoin des...?

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Permalink Reply by Frank on December 26, 2009 at 12:24pm

Hi Joseph,

Both sentences are perfectly correct.

J'ai besoin d'oeufs and J'ai besoin des oeufs are both correct, but with a twist.

The former means that you need (some) eggs while the later means that you need the eggs, i.e. a specific set of eggs that you spoke about before.

Here's another example:

J'ai besoin de pain (de = d' when followed by a consonant)
J'ai besoin du pain (du = de le)

The former means that you need (some) bread. The later means that you probably want the piece of bread that is right under your very nose.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on December 26, 2009 at 5:47pm

That's very interesting, Frank. I didn't appreciate that subtle difference.

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Permalink Reply by Hashim Alhamad on June 19, 2012 at 1:03pm

Merci Frank.  This is very clear and helpful.  I was pretty lost when I read " J'ai besoin des clés" :P

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Permalink Reply by Dwayne Roberts on August 8, 2019 at 8:23pm

A similar question:

J'ai besoin de lunettes? Not …des lunettes? (I don't understand this)

and

J'ai des lunettes? Not …de lunettes? (This makes sense to me)

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on August 8, 2019 at 10:51pm

There are set expressions like avoir peur de and avoir besoin de.

As explained in the earlier post  these can be followed either by de or des depending on the specific sense expressed.

So you can say either j'ai besoin de lunettes or j'ai besoin des lunettes (ones you already had in mind)

But you can't really say j'ai de lunettes  (except perhaps in certain unusual circumstances) ;It has to be j'ai des lunettes

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