The partitive can refer to several things:

• Partitive case
• partitive meaning of noun phrases

The partitive refers to the selection of a part/quantity out of a group/amount. It is used for example in Latin, German and Russian, expressed by the genitive case, and in French language, expressed with the preposition de (and its contracted forms).

Examples (with the partitive marked in italics):

• many of my friends
• the youngest of the children
• a glass of wine.

Grammar