Languages › French Il n'y a pas du pain: Avoid This Common French Mistake French mistakes analyzed and explained Share Flipboard Email Print French Grammar Pronunciation & Conversation Vocabulary Resources For Teachers By ThoughtCo Updated May 04, 2018 Learn from this common French-language mistake. Wrong: Il n'y a pas du painRight: Il n'y a pas de pain Explanation: One of the first things you learn about French vocabulary related to food is that you need to use partitive articles with it, as in je vais acheter du pain (I'm going to buy some bread). You also learn that the partitive article changes to de after a negation, but many French students forget that part. So "there is some bread" is il y a du pain, but "there isn't any bread" is il n'y a pas de pain, not "il n'y a pas du pain." Related lessons: Partive articlesDe vs du, de la, desFrench food vocabulary Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation ThoughtCo. "Il n'y a pas du pain: Avoid This Common French Mistake." ThoughtCo, Jan. 29, 2020, thoughtco.com/il-ny-a-pas-du-pain-1369461. ThoughtCo. (2020, January 29). Il n'y a pas du pain: Avoid This Common French Mistake. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/il-ny-a-pas-du-pain-1369461 ThoughtCo. "Il n'y a pas du pain: Avoid This Common French Mistake." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/il-ny-a-pas-du-pain-1369461 (accessed March 7, 2021). copy citation