un peu

Question

I thought 'un peu' (as in the text above) is followed by 'de'...Je parle un peu d'anglais avec lui.jennifer

Accepted Answer

Hi Jennifer,
You can say both -
Je parle un peu d'anglais avec lui = I speak a bit of English with him
and 
Je parle un peu anglais avec lui = I speak English for a bit with him
Very subtle...

Answer

You can say, e.g., Je voudrais un peu de vin, svp. -- I would like a bit of the wine, please. So there is a larger quantity of wine of which you take some. This doesn't work with speaking English. There is no larger quantity of English to partake from. Hence the construction: Je parle un peu l'anglais avec lui.