"The big female dogs drink the water."

Translation: Les grosses chiennes boivent l'eau.

[Lurie.Arden]

why not "boivent de l'eau", partitif? We are talking about some water here, not all the water in the world? I guess, I'm missing something

[Andrew8510]

I guess it's because the english sentence says "drink THE water" so now the partitif cannot go there, only the definite article "le eau" which is contracted into "l'eau"

[Lurie.Arden]

Oh, I see. Thank you.

[desrain]

picky, picky

[Axel584]

be carreful, "chienne" means "bitch" (like in english btw)

[RayOnRae]

Ooh now I've learnt a new slur to use just in case

[lotusflame23]

I thought it would be de l'eau. Not just l'eau.

[asherbk]

i can't understand. why not "les chiennes grosses"? and if it so when i write the adjective after the noun?

[salfordphil]

I feel your pain. This winds me up too. This may help...
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_4.htm

[Yuevolution]

Thx! that is really useful!

[Sarah_D]

why is "les chiennes grandes" incorrect?

[Andrew8510]

What I've seen here in Duolingo is that gros is used for "big" (as in round big or fat) while grand is used for "tall".

[Sarah_D]

thanks - it actually accepted grandes but said the correct translation is "Les grandes chiennes." I'm wondering why grandes can't go after chiennes.

[thussen]

BAGS adjectives go before the noun (ie. Beauty, Age, Gender, and Size)... and some adjectives have different meanings depending on you put them before or after - example/ nouveau

[Helge.]

Could someone please translate?
les grosses chiennes
les chiennes grosses
les grandes chiennes
les chiennes grandes
There should be a subtle(?) difference in meaning, right?
-- typo edited, thank you amcwest

[lilzuma]

How are 'grosses & grandes' both 'big' ?

[vanderneut]

Very good exercise this one. Of course I got tricked into having "de" in my answer as well. I'll remember the difference between "de l'eau" and "l'eau" much better now!

[Daveaus]

That is not correct you say broivent de l'eau.

[mwbritt75]

That would be "[they] drink (some) water"

[Castropical]

Bitches be thirsty.

[pikkujuttu]

Is there a difference between grosses and grandes? I thought it had something to do with masculine/feminine, but apparently not?

[PatrickJaye]

Grosses and grandes are both feminine plural and they can both be translated as big.

However grosses tends to mean big in terms of volume such as fat, bulky and so on.

Grandes tends to be used to mean big in the sense of tall.

[JackYakov]

why "les chiennes grosses boivent l'eau" is wrong?

[PatrickJaye]

Because "grosses" is one of the adjectives that comes before the noun in french.

"Grosses chiennes" is correct in this case not "chiennes grosses"

[donnagaley]

I keep getting the same ones wrong over and over for the same reasons..ugh.
Keep thinking its las chiennes bcz its a female dog.