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- "You are boys."
"You are boys."
Translation:Vous êtes des garçons.
33 Comments
Because 'boys' is plural it implies that the 'you' is plural, thus requiring 'vous', while 'tu' is singular only.
Yes but say you are playing a computer game and you are boys. Would you not say when someone asks you who am I in this game Tu es des garçons. ?
You always need an article. Simple rule of thumb: when neither the le- or un- forms works, use the de- form.
In previous example I used the article and answer was wrong. "tu es mon le cheval" and Right answer was "tu es mon cheval". This time, I know it needs an article des but omitted just in case! Now it is wrong!
Might help to think of possessive determiners like mon as an article - if you think about it, mon implies 'the'. Mon cheval means you're talking about a specific horse, the person you're talking to could refer to it as ton cheval or just le cheval, either way it would be clear which horse they meant. Mon le cheval means 'my the horse', which isn't done in French (or English, of course!)
I'm a beginner with French, so I'm not sure how accurate this idea will be (hopefully someone will correct me), but I think the rules in French are pretty much the same as English when it comes to determiners and articles - we always use them, with one exception: for whatever reason, in English we drop the requirement when it's an indefinite plural. Like this:
There is a cat here
There are cats here
You are a boy
You are boys
When it becomes plural, the indefinite article a just disappears. You can put some in there, as in "there are some cats here", but it's unnecessary. It's already implied. "You are boys" really implies "you are some boys", we just don't say it (and it sounds a bit weird to do so). French is more consistent and keeps it in, so you get des for plurals.
Can anyone clarify why "vous êtes des garçons" works and "vous sont des garçons" does not?
The Spanish speaker in me thinks sont = son = permanent gendering whereas êtes = están = boys for a moment. Clearly this logic is failing me :{
The last two items in French conjugation of the verb être (to be):
- Vous êtes (you [plural] are)
- Ils/elles sont (they [masculine/feminine] are)
You wouldn't say Elles êtes nor Vous sont becase that's mixing up the terms. You wouldn't say Ellos sois or vosotros son in Spanish either.
Yeah... It's very much that you are trying to use the tense you would use for "ustedes" in Spanish with the pronoun "vosotros"... You need to think latin America love, where they use "vosotros" instead of "ustedes", from what I've gathered - not that I think this applies to Guatemala or Honduras, sadly for us. <3
I still dont know why I should use 'vous' for boys (children) and not the 'tu' form in this case.
Vous is plural "you" (2nd person plural). It's also used as a polite singular form, which sounds like what you're thinking of, but in this case it's definitely directed at boys, plural, so you need the vous form.
So it's not about politeness here, it's all about the numbers
sorry, i don't understand why is wrong "les garcons", why i have to put "des garcons" ? thanks
"Les garcons" means "the boys", in the case of "some boys" or simply "boys" (as in this case - "you are boys") you say "des". You always need an article.
Lol darn it! forgot to add the "s" for it to be plural duo should be a bit more merceful ;-;
What is the difference between "Tu etes des garçons" and "vous etes des garcons"? Both are valid, right? The vous one is just more formal?
I am getting a bit confused about when and how to use des.... can anyone explain?
Vous is formal or to address an older person. Tu is used for children and informal. Boys is the direct object of the verb to be, it is not the subject of the sentence.
