Asking for things and talking about likes/dislikes using du/de la/des in French

In English, if we ask for something, for example ‘Do you have (any) cheese?’, we just say ‘Do you have (name of item) ?’ Or if we’re talking about what we want, in English we just say ‘I want coffee’ or ‘I would like coffee’ etc.

However I’ve noticed in French you can’t just say ‘Avez-vous fromage ?’ etc…it seems you have to say ‘Avez-vous du/de la/des…?’.

I don’t quite understand what du/de la/des mean here, please could anyone explain what they mean and how/where I need to use them? So is it true you can’t just use a noun on its own in French, it always has to have du/de la/des etc in front of it?

What about asking what someone likes, for example ‘Do you like coffee?’ or ‘Do you like action films etc?’. Can we say ‘J’aime café’ for ‘I like coffee’, or would that be ‘J’aime du café’ ? Do we have to use du/de la/des with the verb ‘aimer’ ?

With ‘Je veux…’, ‘Je voudrais…’ and ‘J’ai besoin de…’, do we need to use de/de la/des when we are expressing what we want, would like, need etc?

Bonjour.
When you say je voudrais du fromage, du means some, an indefitine quantity of something . In French you can’t say tu veux fromage, eau, haricots… If you’re talking about a quantity but you don’t use any term to express that quantity, because you don’t know the quantity or because it’s an uncountable, then you put “du, de la, des” which is called “article partitif”

With like, you’re not talking about a quantity but about something general. You would use article defini: le la les : tu aimes le café, tu aimes les films d’action.

With je veux, je voudrais, we are again talking about quantity. If it’s not precise or you can’t count it, you say du, de la, des :Je veux de l’eau, je voudrais du pain… But with j’ai besoin de, we have a preposition. We can’t say de + du, dela, des. We just say J’ai besoin de sel, il a besoin d’eau, elle a besoin de pommes. However, you will see besoin du / de la / des when they mean de + le, de + la, de +les : préposition de + article défini. It sounds the same but the meaning is different, I’m talking about something very precise : J’ai besoin du café noir que tu as acheté ce matin. Tu as besoin des pommes vertes, pas des jaunes.

I hope this helps. It’s a lot of information to process. But don’t worry, take what you need right now, and don’t worry about what you don’t get. The more you listen and read in French, the more familiar it will sound to you and someday you will even start using it without paying attention.

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Merci beaucoup Katy!

Thanks for your reply, it was really helpful. I think it’s just a matter of getting more exposure to French as you say, and all these things will become natural to me and I will learn and know them instinctively. Everything you said makes perfect sense anyway.

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I’m glad to hear that. Thank you.