lucmaster77

[bitter sedge]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

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[bleak birch]

They're both correct. It's the same difference as in "I need butter" and "I need the butter".

"du" here is "de + le", don't confuse it with the partitive article "du". The partitive article is omitted from "avoir besoin de"

[wheat lava]

There could be a slight nuance here:

"J'ai besoin de beurre" means you need some of it, you don't specify a quantity. Also, you can use "de" if butter is present or not. (If it's present, you're expressing your need for some of it, if it's absent, you're just expressing your need for some butter.

"J'ai besoin du beurre" means you need the butter that is currently available (so all of it, you would use "du" to designate butter that is already present, for instance, that's something you could say if you want someone to pass you the butter). It would be a bit weird to say "j'ai besoin du beurre" if no butter is currently present.

[wooden brook]

Whever you see "du", "de la" or "des", you need to consider whether the underlying "de" is a preposition or part of the partitive article.

If the base structure contains the preposition "de" (like "avoir besoin de [qqch]"), then "du" is necessarily the contraction of "de" and "le". It's not the partitive article "du".

• Je veux du beurre --> I want some butter
• Je veux le beurre --> I want the butter
• J'ai besoin de beurre --> I need some butter
• J'ai besoin du beurre --> I need the butter

After the preposition "de", partitive articles disappear entirely. Which is why you don't say "J'ai besoin de du beurre" for "I need some butter"