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- "Les chaussures des femmes"
28 Comments
why not 'the' women's shoes seeing as it is 'les' not 'des'? whats the rule here?
'des femmes' doesn't translate as 'the ladies', but 'ladies'/'some ladies'.
You are absolutely right. However, the article "the" in the sentence "the ladies' shoes" relates to the noun (i.e. shoes) rather than to the ladies, which in this sentence only indicates the possession, hence the apostrophe at the end of it (ladies').
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].")
What I've learned to listen for is the sound. Plural -les sounds more like lay. Singular -le sounds more like lure
How are we meant to tell from the audio if it is "les chaussures des femmeS" or "les chaussures des femme"?
So why isn't it "des les femmes"? Why does the the only appear on the singular forms?
It depends. It can either be "de + les" or the partitive article "des". If you only have the two words in an exercise, it's the partitive article.
What if the shoes belong to a particular woman? I tried "Les chaussures de femme" and it's wrong
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.
The wives shoes?? Up until this point femme was woman. Is this just a problem with this answer or did I miss something??
917
It would be 'the wives' shoes' (with an apostrophe after the word 'wives'. And yes, it would be a correct translation. :)
@kimmyvs
"The female shoes" would mean that the shoes are "female". But shoes cannot be male or female.
