I’ve always thought that in a negation the preposition ‘de’ is used, so in « I don’t waste water » I wrote « je ne gaspille pas d’eau » but this was corrected to « je ne gaspille pas l’eau ». My thought pattern was supported in « when I can’t cycle » - « quand je ne peux pas faire de vélo » (given that : to cycle = faire du vélo). Can this be explained ?
ne…pas de
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Anita P.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
ne…pas de
This question relates to:French writing exercise "My eco-friendly habits"
Asked 2 years ago
Hi Anita,
Just to add to Jim's answer -
in general terms, you would say 'l'eau' but if you talked about a specific situation you might use the partitive
Quand nous campons, je demande aux enfants de ne pas gaspiller d'eau = When we are camping I ask the children not to waste any water
Hope this helps!
Jim J. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Anita,
I suspect that to write "I don't waste water" should be "Je ne gaspille pas l'eau" because you need to express "water" in a general sense rather than "any water".
I do agree with you however about "faire (faire de qch) du vélo" where vélo is a countable noun -- but water is an uncountable noun.
Perhaps this is the answer?
Bonne Journée
Jim
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