In French grammar, the partitive article is considered as an expression of quantity. Textbooks on French often indicate that it is used to express an undetermined quantity or a part of something. They sometimes even say that the article includes the plural form des. Korean French-learners find it difficult to use the partitive article because of such confusing explanations. In this study, I prove this difficulty by having Korean French-learners fill in empty boxes in sentences with appropriate articles and observing that they fulfilled their tasks very poorly. When they see pieces of an object, they tend to use the partitive article, while native French speakers will use the indefinite article. I suggest that we should teach Korean French-learners the difference between enumerable nouns and non-enumerable nouns first. After that, they should learn that the indefinite article as a determinative is associated with countable nouns of some objects with unidentified or unspecified numbers, while the partitive article is linked with non-enumerable nouns that are intrinsically non-countable. This will clarify that the plural form des cannot appertain to the partitive article. I also would like to highlight that understanding the partitive article takes part in the process of interpreting the utterance.

French partitive prticles, part, undetermined quantity, determinative, interpretation of the utterance, non-enumerable nouns