"Les soldats ne sont pas des artistes."

Translation: The soldiers are not artists.

[cravatenamja]

Why is "des" not "de" here after a negative construction?

[patlaf]

That doesn't apply to a negations of the verb être

See point 4 here: http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_2.htm

[sylvietr]

Thanks for your question, cravatenmja, and thanks for the link patlaf! Although I use it correctly (out of habit), I didn't realize there was a distinction or a rule, so this is helpful.

[AghaZC]

Is this a quote from some famous french guy?

[victorgijsbers]

Seems to me that the opposite would be more quotable... "Soldiers are artists. They paint in blood and guts."

[qwertyface]

"Soldiers are artists. They paint in blood and guts." Pas mal

[pietvo]

Can this not be translated "soldiers are not artists"?

[DLDoozey]

I'm curious too as to why the article is required here.

[organell]

It was accepted today 2015-09-20.

[CeciEstLaVie]

'soldiers aren't artists' also accepted, 2015/9/22

[BePolyglot]

Shouldn't the sentence "The soldiers are no artists." be accepted?

[j2thej]

why not "the soldiers are no artists"?

[StuartFras5]

Ah, but they are! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists_Rifles

[helenhahahaha]

Soldiers can also be artist