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- "Les chaussures des femmes"
28 Comments
In the same "Food" lesson where we learned about the partitive and plural indefinite articles, we also learned that de + definite article can also indicate possession or association. In "les chaussures des femmes", "des" does not function as a plural indefinite article, but rather indicates possession of les chaussures by les femmes.
By "Les chaussures des femmes" we are talking not about "Les chaussures pour femmes" (shoes for women), but rather the shoes that belong to certain specific women, aren't we?
If so, then the suggested translation of "Women's shoes", which means "shoes for women", is wrong, and instead it should be "The women's shoes".
(Even then, there is an ambiguity, as "[the women's] shoes" might be mistaken as "the [women's shoes].")
So why isn't it "des les femmes"? Why does the the only appear on the singular forms?
Because it's not what the sentence means,but if it was "the woman's shoes",it might have been correct. not so sure anymore...
I'm sure this is a very dumb question but i hope that you guys can answer it anyway. Why doesn't this translate to shoes women? I have enough common sense to translate it so that it makes since in English but it's still very confusing. I know that the answer will be simple but i just haven't arrived to it yet.
917
It would be 'the wives' shoes' (with an apostrophe after the word 'wives'. And yes, it would be a correct translation. :)