When you talk about some of something — some bread, some water — French uses a special article, the partitive:

Form	Used before	Example
du	a masculine noun	du pain — (some) bread
de la	a feminine noun	de la confiture — (some) jam
de l'	a noun starting with a vowel or silent h	de l'eau — (some) water
des	a plural noun	des fruits — (some) fruit

English often says nothing at all: I eat bread. French almost never drops the article: Je mange du pain.

Words for this lesson: le pain (bread), le beurre (butter), le fromage (cheese), la confiture (jam), l'eau (water, feminine), le lait (milk), le café, le thé (tea), le jus d'orange, les céréales (cereal).

Two verbs: manger (to eat) is a regular -er verb with one twist — nous mangeons keeps an e so the g stays soft. Boire (to drink) is irregular: je bois, tu bois, il / elle boit, nous buvons, vous buvez, ils / elles boivent.