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Table of Content Chapter 3 3.1.1.5 Definite articles vs. partitive article

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Chapter 3: Nouns, articles and adjectives

  3.1.1.5 Definite articles vs. partitive article
We now will compare definite articles with partitive articles to give you a better feeling for the differences.
Have a look at the following sentences.

  Example
J' aime le vin. definite article
  Je veux boire du vin. partitive article

Having a closer look at them:

Example    
J' aime le vin.
  I like --- wine.
  Je veux boire du vin.
  I would like to drink (some) wine.

Once the definite article was used, once the partitive article. In English both times no article would be used. Coming back to the definition as in here, partitive articles are used when 'some' can be used, because here it is about only part of a unity and not about the unity itself.

  Other examples
Le café est très important pour l' économie de l' Amérique du Sud
    The coffee is very important for the economy of   South America.
  La Colombie exporte du (de + le) café            
      Colombia exports (some) coffee.            

Again we can see that the first sentence regards coffee as a unity, all of coffee is important in South America. And some of it (just a part) is exported by Colombia.
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