New
New
Year 9

Winter celebrations: partitive articles

I can use the partitive article to talk about traditional food and drink on festive occasions in the French-speaking world.

New
New
Year 9

Winter celebrations: partitive articles

I can use the partitive article to talk about traditional food and drink on festive occasions in the French-speaking world.

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Lesson details

Vocabulary and transcripts for this lessons

Key learning points

  1. Use un/une to talk about whole things, and du/de la/de l' (the partitive article) to talk about 'part' of something.
  2. Whole things are normally countable – you can put 'a' or a number in front of them.
  3. Some nouns are uncountable. You can't put 'a' or a number in front of them. Uncountable nouns only take the partitive.
  4. The partitive article changes to 'de' after a quantity and in negatives.

Keywords

  • Partitive article - refers to part of something; often means 'some' in English

Common misconception

Use the partitive article with all uncountable nouns, even negatives.

After quantities and negatives use 'de/d' instead of the partitive article. E.g Il y a beaucoup de riz. Il n'y a pas de riz.


To help you plan your year 9 French lesson on: Winter celebrations: partitive articles, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

It would be useful for students to have individual copies of the text for A2 and the activity could be extended by correcting the false answers. The texts in B1 and B2 also have scope to be translations into English and/or read aloud activities.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which word means 'happiness'?

liberté
foi
Correct answer: bonheur
souvenir
air

Q2.
Match the French to the English.

Correct Answer:contenir,to contain, containing

to contain, containing

Correct Answer:appartenir,to belong to, belonging to

to belong to, belonging to

Correct Answer:croire,to believe, believing

to believe, believing

Correct Answer:lever,to raise, raising

to raise, raising

Correct Answer:soutenir,to support, supporting

to support, supporting

Correct Answer:traduire,to translate, translating

to translate, translating

Q3.
Order the words to say 'for Hanukkah, doughnuts are eaten to remember the oil'.

1 - pour Hanoucca
2 - on
3 - mange
4 - des beignets
5 - en
6 - souvenir
7 - de l'huile

Q4.
Order the words to say 'Christmas is an important festival for Christians'.

1 - Noël
2 - est
3 - une
4 - fête
5 - importante
6 - pour
7 - les chrétiens

Q5.
'Le dinde est un plat traditionnel.' Translate this sentence into English.

Correct Answer: Turkey is a traditional dish

Q6.
'She receives a small present.' Translate this sentence into French.

Correct Answer: Elle reçoit un cadeau petit

Assessment exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Match the French to English.

Correct Answer:canadien,Canadian

Canadian

Correct Answer:chrétien,Christian

Christian

Correct Answer:musulmane,Muslim

Muslim

Correct Answer:algérien,Algerian

Algerian

Correct Answer:européen,European

European

Correct Answer:juif,Jewish

Jewish

Q2.
Which word means 'non-religiousness'?

symbole
Correct answer: laïcité
plat
cadeau
fête

Q3.
Order the words to say 'when we celebrate Christmas, we watch television together'.

1 - quand
2 - nous
3 - célébrons
4 - le noël
5 - nous regardons
6 - la télévision
7 - ensemble

Q4.
Order the words to say 'you spend the winter holidays at your home'.

1 - tu
2 - passes
3 - les
4 - vacances
5 - d'hiver
6 - chez
7 - toi

Q5.
Order the words to say 'for dessert, one has cakes'.

1 - pour
2 - le
3 - dessert
4 - on
5 - prend
6 - des
7 - gâteaux

Q6.
'Il mange une tarte avec du sirop.' Translate this sentence into English.

Correct Answer: He eats a tart with syrup

Additional material

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