Language and culture - Chapter 4.9

I am a beginner in French and am under the impression that all the articles have to match up with the nouns. If true shouldn't the following sentences be des pommes instead of de pommes? Je ne veux pas de pommes, merci. (from chapter 4.9) Je ne veux plus de pommes, merci. (ditto)

Hi - this reminded me of an earlier question on "combien de", so I did some more digging around and found this on About.com French: Adverbs of quantity: http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa060300q.htm Negative construction: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_2.htm Specific or unspecific: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_3.htm The key seems to be whether the noun is a negative construction (de), unspecific (de) or specific (des).

Merci beaucoup, The links were very helpful but I feel that the part of my brain for grammar and exceptions are filled up. I am at a point where I can't seen to move forward. I'm repeating the earlier chapters hoping to fortify my foundation. I am still hopeful that eventually I will be able to write the above paragraph in French.

Bonjour! I will attempt to provide a simple explanation without all of the grammatical jargon. When we are speaking in the negative, 'de' is never expressed as 'de la', 'du' or 'des'. It is simply a rule that you must remember in French. A simply 'de' is used to insinuate '(not) any'. I hope this has been of some help! - Marie-Claire