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Generally when you're replacing a definite article you use de and when replacing an indefinite you keep it the same, right? Or am I misremembering?

So when you say "I don't like fictions" that's not indefinite or partitive, so wouldn't it be "je n'aime pas de fiction" rather than "je n'aime pas de la fiction"?

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    Why do you think it should be je n'aime pas de fiction ? Both je n'aime pas de fiction and je n'aime pas de la fiction are wrong (a such, of course it could depend on specific contexts). "Generally when you're replacing a definite article you use de and when replacing an indefinite you keep it the same" is not very clear. You really should improve your question.
    – None
    Commented Oct 31 at 11:53
  • Because I learned French for years in grade school and high school and then went 20 years without using it much and am trying to relearn and thought you always used de after negation. Guess I was mistaken or misinformed or a combo of both.
    – FrancophailVéritable
    Commented Oct 31 at 13:45
  • De or no de after the negation depends on what sort of noun you use, and of the context, and of what verb you use. Je n'aime pas les légumes but je ne veux pas de légumes, je ne vois pas de chat. Je n'aime pas la fiction, je n'aime pas les fictions. You can never have the partitive article de after aimer when it used to mean "like". By the way, welcome to FL!
    – None
    Commented Oct 31 at 15:31
  • Is English your native language? "I don't like fictions" doesn't sound very English...do you mean fiction as a category of writing? Or a category of untruth?
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 31 at 16:01

2 Answers 2

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Duolingo is wrong.

The correct sentence is:

Je n'aime pas la fiction.

If you don't like the "fiction" genre.

or

Je n'aime pas les fictions.

If you don't like fictions as a collection of items.

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    I wonder if this is a consequence of DuoLingo's recent decision to use more AI in their app. If it is, it was a boneheaded decision.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Oct 31 at 12:44
  • I would have thought this is right too but they had de la and I had put de and not used the la and Duo dinged me for it and said de la is right. Guess they goofed.
    – FrancophailVéritable
    Commented Oct 31 at 13:46
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    As a native speaker, « Je n’aime pas de fiction » sounds unnatural but not incorrect, if you don’t like any fiction.
    – user2233709
    Commented Oct 31 at 23:05
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    @user2233709 As a native speaker I can say that using the partitive article in front of an uncountable noun after aimer (when expressing liking) is not correct (and that is why it sounds unnatural to you) because it just doesn't make sense, you can't count fiction. Question already been asked & answered on FL.
    – None
    Commented Nov 1 at 7:33
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    @None> it is a very common metonymy to use "fiction" to mean pieces of fictional work. When used like this, it is countable. eg "bien que connu pour ses publications scientifiques, Stephen Hawking a également écrit 5 fictions pour enfant".
    – spectras
    Commented Nov 2 at 3:02
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Believe it or not, I asked Claude.ai the question

Y a-t-il un cas où le verbe aimer peut être suivi de la préposition «de»?

and here is the astonishing answer I got:

Oui, il existe effectivement des cas où le verbe "aimer" peut être suivi de la préposition "de" en français.
Voici quelques exemples :

Lorsque "aimer" exprime un goût, une préférence ou un penchant pour quelque chose :

J'aime beaucoup de la musique classique.
Elle aime des voyages en montagne.


Avec certaines expressions figées où "aimer" est suivi d'un nom :

J'aime beaucoup de la lecture.
Il aime de la bonne chère.


Quand "aimer" est utilisé pour exprimer un sentiment d'affection ou d'attachement envers une personne :

Elle aime beaucoup de sa grand-mère.
Ils aiment de leurs enfants plus que tout.

As a quasi-native speaker, for me these sentences are horribly wrong. They are “hallucinations” in the AI jargon. But why are there so many and so dreadful hallucinations based on the use of the “de” preposition? And is this the reason Duolingo is also hallucinating?

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    My comment about AI being responsible for Duolingo’s bad grammar was pure speculation, but this makes it look quite plausible. Very interesting.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Nov 5 at 18:51
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    See this just confuses me even MORE as a non-native speaker. I thought it was ALWAYS the case that when you use "beaucoup" you use DE after rather than de la or du. So are these AI examples just dead wrong about that or am I misinformed about the use of "beaucoup de"? The only exception I know of is if you do d' because the next word begins with a vowel which is just for easier pronunciation really.
    – FrancophailVéritable
    Commented Nov 6 at 18:13
  • @FrancophailVéritable: J'ai beaucoup de chiens — I have a lot of dogs. J'aime beaucoup les chiens — I like dogs a lot. So here the grammar depends on whether beaucoup is associated with chiens or aime.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Nov 7 at 3:06
  • I still wondered whether AI could be trustworthy. I now strongly believe that it can give hints but that everything that was directly produced by a raw AI (without human supervision) must be controlled twice...
    – Serge Ballesta
    Commented Nov 7 at 13:06
  • o_O "Elle aime beaucoup de sa grand-mère." sounds a bit like she enjoys from the head to the knees of her grandmother but not below. (And besides, there are actual cases where you can have "de" after "aimer", e.g. "Les gens l'aiment de plus en plus".)
    – Kaiido
    Commented Nov 7 at 13:44

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