French language Q&A Forum

Hi Aurélie: Maybe you could put some clarification in the lessons re. the above le/du question. Unfortunately, it falls in the middle of the partitive and the definite article lessons. As your examples above, I had always seen that the definite article was used for general cases, the classic being “J’aime le thé”. But to me, “Je bois le thé” seems just as general (and same meaning). As would “Je mange le pain”. But it seems that for verbs involving consumption of the item that the partitive should be used; as in one of the lesson questions “Je bois du jus d’orange au petit-déjeuner.” That sure seems general to me. Would “I like tea at breakfast” now be “du thé” ? Thank you.

For the sentence “And afterwards, I would finally propose to her”, there are two answers:

Et après, je lui demanderais enfin de m’épouser/ Et après, je la demanderais enfin en marriage.

Why is the indirect object for the verb “demander”  used in the first sentence and the direct object for the verb “demander” used in the second?