partitive article?

Question

My questions are what is a partitive article? Is it different than the indefinite articles? Is it talked about in a lesson or in the reference pages; and do you have a link? Gracias.

Answer 1

Partitive article

A partitive article is a type of indefinite article used with a mass noun such as water, to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. Partitive articles are used in French and Italian in addition to definite and indefinite articles. The nearest equivalent in English is some, although this is considered a determiner and not an article.

Where in the reference section did you see it? Could you link to the article?

Here is a link to our Reference article on indefinite articles. I don''t see it used there. The search engine for previous discussions turns up nothing.

I did see this in wikipedia. So I think a partitive article is important to know is a type of indefinite article. - bandit51jd, Aug 22, 2010

Answer 2

There is no partitive article in Spanish (that I know of).

Answer 3

I believe the term "partitive" was used in a recent thread (but in reference to French, not Spanish). The topic question was something like "Would it be correct to say 'Quiero alguna agua." to mean "I'd like some water." and the responder, in the course of saying that no, that would not work in Spanish added the observation that in such expressions a partitive was used in French. ("Je voudrais du l'eau.").

If Lazarus says that he know of no partitive article in Spanish, I think you can safely assume that "there is no such animal".