la pomme de terre
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NazaninKwiziq community member
la pomme de terre
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
This question relates to:French lesson "Expressing possession in French with "de""
Asked 7 years ago

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!
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!

LauraKwiziq team member
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.
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