la pomme de terre

Question

Bonjour et excuse moi :) For the potato that we say la pomme de terre, why don't we say "la pomme de la terre" ? I mean shouldnt we use le /la/les as possesive after de?? Merci beaucoup

Aurélie Drouard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Nazanin !

Here you are not saying "the apple of THE earth", which would imply a possession by one of the other, but more "the earth apple" which is a general characteristic of that kind of apple.
Therefore, you will not use the definite article "la" which makes it a specific case ("of THE earth").
Here it's not a case of possession, but rather a case of characterisation, such as explained in the following lesson:
Compound nouns formed with prepositions à/de/en in French

I hope that's helpful!

Laura K Lawless · Answer

Bonjour Nazanin,

Good question. No, because "de" is not possessive here: it's not saying that the "apple" belongs to the ground, it's describing where it comes from.

Nazanin Biari · Answer

Thank you very much

Nazanin Biari · Answer

And how is good that you answer quicly 
Nice of you and your team. :)