29 Comments
You are right when you say (you have ... vous avez...) but when it comes in infinitive or gerund it would be avoir (I like having... j'aime avoir...)
The infinitive is the non-conjugated form of any verb, and it does not have an explicit subject.
You cannot have 2 conjugated verbs in a row.
If the first one is conjugated, the second one comes in infinitive: vous pouvez avoir
"You can have some ducks" is apparently also correct and makes a little more sense to me
1718
Be aware that "des" is simply the plural of "un/une". There is no real counterpart for this in English. Some people have the idea that it must be translated as "some" (through unintentional Duolingo presentations), but this "some" is almost always ignored in English. I.e.,
- un livre, des livres = a book, books (not "some books")
- une pomme, des pommes = an apple, apples (not "some apples")
Thanku thay 'some ' was my question. It was well explained thanks again
Would this be the preferred way to say "You can own ducks" in french? Or would "Vous pouvez posséder des canards" be better?
Although it is used as an auxiliary and in a number of expressions where it kind of loses its meaning, "avoir" still means "posséder". The quality of your French will (eventually) be judged by how cleverly you use synonyms, to avoid "flat" speech and boring repetitions.
Sorry for the long speech... "vous pouvez posséder des canards" is very good French.
- 1718
It is not "better", just different, but also acceptable. As Sitesurf said, "avoir" can also be used in the meaning of "own" or sometimes even "wear" or "have on" (clothing).
I was given the question vous pouvez ............. des canards and had to choose between vous pouvez avez des canards and vous pouvez avoir des canards. I chose the first and it was wrong. Can someone tell me why that isn't a sentence?
You cannot have 2 conjugated verbs with the same subject one after another.
The second one has to be in infinitive: avoir.
- 18
Could you not instead say, "Vous pouvez avez des canards." because using the infinitive 'to have' doesn't make sense to me.
when you get two verbs in a row, the second one is in infinitive.
you can have ducks means you can own/possess ducks = tu peux avoir/posséder des canards.
Strangely in English we do say "..can have.." but we use the infinitive "to" (have") with most other verbs e.g. I want to have, I need to have, I long to have, I work to have. But we say "..must have.." like "..can have.."
It helps if you translate pouvez avoir as "you are able to have" in your head instead of "you can have", and then it still sounds like an infinitive in english!
- 368
could this be interpreted as "you can have some duck" (e.g for dinner)? that's what i thought at first listening to the sentence - not 'owning ducks' (which seems like an odd thing to do)
the verb "avoir" is not used in the similar way English uses "have" to mean "to consume". I think this is also explained in one of the lesson notes earlier. Therefore, "avoir" cannot be used to translate having something to eat or to drink.
- 1718
No. Your sentence would be "vous pouvez prendre du canard", where "du" is a partitive article referring to an undetermined amount of something. https://www.thoughtco.com/du-de-la-des-1368977
"des" is the plural of "un" or "une".
"un canard" is singular and "des canards" is plural.
In English "a/an" does not have a plural form but the French plural indefinite article "des" is required to mean "more than one".
Why was there no translation of this sentence. You want to have ducks? And what does it mean: you want to have ducks (to eat) or to keep?
the translation, appearing at the top of this page reads "you can have ducks".
"avoir des canards" means "to possess ducks".
"eat ducks" cannot be said with the verb "avoir", only with the verb "manger".
- 984
I can have ducks..? - (and there's me thinking a duck was out of the question.)
