Partitif ou défini ? du café / le café

Unité GR-05 · campagne 4 · la tasse ou la catégorie.

Du café and le café are both grammatical — the error is picking the wrong one for the sentence you are in. The distinction is between a portion and a category:

• Partitive (du, de la, de l') — an unmeasured amount that gets consumed: je bois du café, tu veux **de l'**eau ?, les Français mangent du pain à presque tous les repas.
• Definite (le, la, les) — the thing as a whole category, judged or preferred: j'adore le café, elle déteste le bruit.

Because meaning is slippery mid-sentence, lean on the verb — it almost always decides for you:

1. Consumption verbs — boire, manger, prendre, acheter — take the partitive. You consume a portion, never the world's supply.
2. Preference verbs — aimer, adorer, détester, préférer — take the definite. A preference is a verdict on the whole category.

This unit also closes the loop with GR-01 and GR-03: under negation the partitive reduces (je ne bois pas de café) while the preference frame keeps its definite (je n'aime pas le café). One verb check now settles both the affirmative and the negative sentence. The items below drill the verb test until it fires before you write the article.

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