hi, i'm learning l'expression de la quantite..

In my textbook, there are some sentences that i don't understand why they use differnet articles for them.
(sorry for not using proper 'é')

1. vous voulez un cafe?/ qu'est-ce que tu veux ton petit-dejeuner? Du the, du cafe?

-how do you recognize when to use du and when to use un?

2. (qu'est-ce que tu mets, dans la mousse au chocolat?)
Eh bien un peu de/du chocolat, quatre/beaucoup d'oeufs,
une bouteille/un litre de vin rose

-The answers are du ,quatre, bouteille. but i don't see clearly why the other choices are wrong... is it concerned with countable/uncounatble noun concept?

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Permalink Reply by Alix Martin on November 10, 2010 at 2:23pm

1. In the first sentences, you can use "un café" or "du café". When you say "un café", it means a cup of coffee, and "du café" means some coffee... In addition, you must say "qu'est-ce que tu veux POUR ton petit déjeuner?"

2. I don't think the good answer is "du chocolat". We say "Eh bien, un peu DE chocolat". But I don't know why. It's not a problem of countable noun concept. I just observe that we always use "un peu de" but never "un peu du".
e.g. : "un peu de beurre", "un peu de vin", "un peu de farine", etc.

If you use "un peu du chocolat", it refers to a particuliar chocolate. It can be said "un peu DE CE chocolat", where "ce" is possession.

I don't know if i'm clear... Tell me.

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Permalink Reply by Mihyun Lee on February 2, 2011 at 4:09am

Thank you very much. I guess my book is not perfect.

You helped me a lot. merci!

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on February 2, 2011 at 4:25pm

Another slight thing is that you really shouldn't put the comma in (2), because if you do put the comma, then you need to insert an extra word "y": Qu'est-ce que tu y mets, dans la....

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Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on February 4, 2011 at 8:21pm

Hi Neil,

In fact, the "y" isn't particularly useful, here. I can't find an understandable explanation though. :/

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on February 4, 2011 at 8:26pm

I admit it's variable, but I think the conventional punctuation would be to put the comma if you add the "y", and not to put the comma if you don't.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on February 2, 2011 at 4:27pm

Alix -- I think you've basically summed it up: as you say, "beaucoup du...", "un peu du..." would mean "a lot/bit of THE..." (equivalent of "de ce..."), referring to some specific coffee/wine etc, whereas with "de", it just means a lot/bit of any coffee/wine in the universe.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on February 2, 2011 at 7:39pm

The vin rosé part is mysterious. You wouldn't use wine as an ingredient of mousse au choco at all, so why would this exercise prefer une bouteille over un litre? It's rubbish!