Descriptive de vs Possessive de

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De vs du, de la, des

Sometimes the choice between de and du, de la, des is simply a question of whether you’re describing a noun or indicating a possessor.

1. To show possession of a noun, use de + definite article:

le livre de l’étudiant le livre des étudiants	the student’s book the students’ book	belongs to the student(s)
le panier du chien	the dog’s basket	belongs to the dog

 Unless it’s a proper noun:

le livre de Jean-Luc		Jean-Luc’s book
le panier de Bijou		Bijou’s basket

or there’s some other determiner such as a demonstrative adjective or possessive adjective:

le livre de cet étudiant		this student’s book
le panier de mon chien		my dog’s basket

2. To describe a noun, use de + descriptive noun construction:

le livre d’étudiant		student book	the book for or about students
le panier de chien		dog basket	the basket for a dog

3. To distinguish one noun among a group, use de + definite article. This is often used in advertising.

le livre de l’étudiant étranger	foreign student book foreign student’s book	book for foreign students book that belongs to Felipe
le panier du chien délicat	discriminating dog’s basket	basket for discriminating dogs (there are two dogs; this basket is for the discriminating one)

 This can be tricky, because this construction looks like it could be either descriptive or possessive.

 More about de vs du, de la, des

Introduction
Partitive and indefinite articles
Quantities, adjectives, and prepositional phrases
Descriptive de vs possessive de
Verbs and expressions with de
Quiz on de vs du, de la, des

 Related lessons

• Definite article
• Demonstrative adjective
• Descriptions
• Determiners
• Possessive adjective
• Prepositions with nouns

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