"Mes parents boivent du café."
Translation:My parents drink coffee.
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parent = relative ... parents = parents ... duolingo is correct in this instance
What is the singular for parent as in my parent (if I were only referring to one parent) and what is the plural for relatives, more than one relative
It is a trick in French that is circumvented by the use of "ma famille" to mean "my relatives" (Oxford French Dictionary).
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Yes, please to NamNum's question! And when to use "la" instead. One of the sentences was "my parents like beer" so I wrote "Mes parents aiment de la biere" and it marked it incorrect, that it was "la biere" only. Now this one says it's "du cafe"....I thought beer, like coffee, is something that can't be quantified, so why can I not use "some" ???
The difference is the use of "aimer" which will always be followed with a definite article, not a partitive.
"Du" is a partitive article (here) referring to an undetermined amount of something. "Du" is the masculine partitive article; "de la" is the feminine partitive article.