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. (In Finnish and Estonian, the partitive is indicated by inflection.) The nearest equivalent in English is some, although this is considered a determiner and not an article.
French: Veux-tu du café ?
Do you want (some) coffee? (or, dialectally but more accurately, Do you want some of this coffee?)
See also more information about the French partitive article.
Haida has a partitive article (suffixed -gyaa) referring to "part of something or... to one or more objects of a given group or category," e.g., tluugyaa uu hal tlaahlaang 'he is making a boat (a member of the category of boats).'[9]
