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For those too lazy to read: In the singular, you would use "C'est..." In the plural, you would use "Ce sont..."
As to "Ces sont..", it does not exist, unless the subject is included as well.
"Ces gens sont..."
The last shoes and the last pair of shoes can be the same in some circumstances, but not in others. If a shoe store has 10 pairs of shoes left, but only in 1 style, then the sales assistant could say:
- These are our last shoes
But could not say
- These are our last pair of shoes
It seems like half the comments you make are relevant to the sentence being translated and the other half are totally irrelevant. I can't decide which ones I like more : )
What? What? A cobbler cant make shoes without the Last upon which the shoe is fashioned. Its a Three-Pronged Soul-shaped Tool much like a small anvil. If Duo and the French language want to play around Wunel... Then I'm Game. :) Hehehe.... All relevant in its own tiny-minded way. These shoes are the ones which were hand cobbled upon the Last. These are the Last shoes. The rest were mass -produced by machines in the Asian sweat-factory. Forgive me please Wunel if you knew that anyway. Not a lot of people do. Fives. JJ
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I wrote these are the last pair of shoes ...wrong Does it exist in French words for pair of ....
Hmm, I hear an "l" between dernieres & chaussures. I wonder if the recording is wrong or something is missing from the sentence... I don't think anything is missing in between myself.
WHat I've slowly realized is that at times when one word ends, theres a slight vowel sound that trails after the word ends(to me its more like 'eh' then I) Here it might be that the last e in derniere is being pronounced tho. BUt like you, i dunno if this is wrong either heh.
No i hear it to... mabye an issue in da speakers. That happens a lot.
When I go to France I am going to try my hardest to never have to say 'chaussure'. I just cannot work that word! rofl
You could say "soulier". http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/chaussure/15017?q=chaussures#14885
"Soulier" would work in Quebec, but in France it's a word that is considered old-fashioned
If a shopkeeper said this to a customer, would it mean "these are the last shoes [we have left]." or "these are the latest shoes [that we've got in the store]".
Or is it equally likely to mean either?
It could mean either "last" or "latest". The dictionary that allintolearning linked to is a great resource to use. http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais/dernier/23949#651816
Thanks (+ allintolearning) for the dictionary link - I was using Collins http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-french but the Larousse has more words, plus pronunciation of phrases and easy back-and-forth between English - though it lacks prompt selection in the search box which is nice in Collins.
Ha, classic! Here's some vraie vieille nouvelle vague http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_WbvOGZUAE
I heard that derniere and some other adjectives can go before or after the noun. Derniere before the noun means final, and after means previous.
Here's where I got that: https://www.dummies.com/languages/french/how-to-place-of-french-adjectives-correctly/
No, "ces" cannot be used as a pronoun. "Ces" is an adjective. It is the plural of the adjectives: ce, cet, cette.
"Ces" can be used only in front of a plural noun, for example, "Ces chaussures sont rouges."
On another discussion page, sitesurf commented:
-"c'est" and "ce sont" are fixed formulas where "ce" remains invariable (comparable to there is/there are)
Why can't this be "These are the final shoes!"? Technically dernières means both final and last, and it has the same meaning. What am I missing here?
I had a similar case of last something. I gave 'these' as translation for ce sont but duo gave an alternate translation with 'this'. How Come duo rejects 'this' this time? Someone help me out. Jackjohn hope u are here
Hi Kikipaul. In English we say "These" as used in Duo's task sentence here, but we'd say "This" if the sentence was "This is the last PAIR of shoes" which is not the task sentence Duo gave us to solve. I can't comment on your previous task as I don't know what is was.
i do not understand how we are supposed to tell which word to use. i almost never get it right!
