- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "Les hommes sont des enfants."
42 Comments
In English you let the noun stand on its own when you want to make a generalization. (Men are children = All men are children, Amsterdam bikes are red = all Amsterdam bikes are red). In French you are not allowed to do that. Instead they use Les hommes sont des enfants whether they mean a particular group of men ( The (those) men are children) or men in general (Men are children). You could of course also use Tous les hommes sont des enfants for expressing that all men are children. You can't really use "des" to make generalizations about a group. Read about the usage of de, du de las and des on http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des.htm