- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "Nous sommes des enfants."
23 Comments
1562
In French, there is almost always an article before a noun.
Here, "des" is an indefinite article.
"Des" often implies there is no article before the noun in English, but it can be translated into "some".
- For example, "Nous sommes des enfants" translates into "We are children".
1562
We just fixed this error: "Nous sommes des enfants" translates to "We are children". Thanks!
1562
Here, the subject is the pronoun "nous" (1st person plural). The 1st person plural of verb "ĂȘtre" is "sommes".
In similar sentences, "sommes" would be used with "hommes", "femmes" and "enfants":
-
Nous sommes des hommes.
-
Nous sommes des femmes.
-
Nous sommes des enfants.
Well, they correspond to two different grammatical persons: 'sont' correspond to they (ils) - ils sont - and 'sommes' correspond to we (nous) - nous sommes.
We don't differentiate these persons in English - we speak both 'they are' and 'we are' - but in French such difference exists. The many conjugations of the verb 'ĂȘtre' (to be) - 'suis', 'es', 'est', 'sommes' and 'sont' - should be distinguished in the same way 'am', 'is' and 'are' are distinguished.