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The other day I was reading a French comic when I noticed one of the characters said this:
Vous mentez! C'est du piment rouge!
Note the use of the partitive. This strikes me as a little odd, since I would think red peppers would be countable (like bananas, for instance). Shouldn't it be
C'est un piment rouge!
instead? I'm not a native French speaker, so I'm not entirely certain.
"C'est un piment rouge" implies that you are speaking about a whole red pepper whereas "C'est du piment rouge" implies a more vague amount of pepper.
It's the equivalent of "It's red pepper" vs "It's a red pepper".
Sur l'étal d'un marché de plein vent, c'est un piment rouge.
Au rayon des épices du supermarché, c'est du piment rouge.
As a native french speaker, I can assure you that both sentences are correct, although "C'est du piment rouge!" sounds more natural to me.
