"Some women drink wine."

Translation: Des femmes boivent du vin.

[AlanMorris]

Surely this could also be translated as "Des femmes boire vin" - the English may be read as a statement about what some women may do - it must be context sensitive.

[lesbianmoonbase]

An accepted translation for me was "Des femmes boivent du vin" - I'm not sure what version of the question you had but it may just have been a lack of conjugation and article that caused you to get marked down.

[melsin]

why DU ? and not just LE? I know a noun needs an article

[lesbianmoonbase]

"Du" is short for "de le" (and that's why the feminine form of "du" is "de la"). It's often translated as "some" (eg. "du vin" ↝ "some wine"), but literally means "of the".

So in this case, "des femmes boivent le vin" would translate to "women drink the wine", whereas "des femmes boivent du vin" would translate to "women drink some wine", or as we'd say in english, "women drink wine".

[holylordchipotle]

What do 'quelque' and 'certaines' mean?

[jzob]

I'm confused. I was taught in high school that a sentence could not start with du/de la/des. I think I might be remembering it incorrectly. Could someone explain, please?

[Eluzie]

why not 'quelques femmes...'?

[btrieu1]

My answer was "quelques femmes boivent du vin" and passed.