24 Comments
This should allow me to say "Their red dress has pockets" it appears that the only correct translation is to say "Her red dress..." well technically "His red dress.." should be also be considered.
"His red dress..." is accepted. To say "Their red dress..." would use 'leur'.
Unless you're using the singular "they" in English... and we have records of respected authors using that as far back as 1395.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
It only fell out of favour because "experts" kept insisting that we should use "he" to refer to people of indeterminate gender. ("he" as an indeterminate gender pronoun has been around for about the same amount of time.)
Why is the article 'des' needed in this sentence? In English it is unnecessary. Does this mean in French all nouns need articles?
Yes, every noun in french needs an article and if in french there is no article and you are just saying
(She has cats/ Elle a des chats)
you have to use des because all french nouns need articles.
In short, "des" is used when there is no "the, an, a" etc.
the first word - i heard it as "ca" would that have any meaning then, as in "that red dress"?
10
I think ça is only a demonstrative pronoun. When you say "that dress" you are using a demonstrative adjective (i.e., you're using "that" to describe the dress).
To say "that dress" you have to use a demonstrative adjective (ce, cet, cette, ces) so you'd say: "cette robe" since dress is feminine.
I believe saying "ça robe" is almost like saying "it dress" in English, it's just a bit off.
mmm i came across your reply now! :) GUess it makes sense when you put it that way. Guess it sounds the same, just depends on context to know what it is their saying.
- 10
Right, it's like saying "Their dresses have pockets" versus "They're dresses have pockets." Both sentences sound the same but only one is grammatically correct.
- 1754
"That dress" would be "cette robe", not "ça robe". http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/indefinite-demonstrative-pronoun.htm
Soo. ca vs sa, can anyone indicate how to distinguish between the two when im listening to this sa/ca sound?
Also, I had an inkling that my translation of 'robe rouge a des peches' wasnt quite right.
I don't think you'll be able to distinguish ça from sa in hearing, but "sa," as an adjective, should generally be found preceding a noun (or perhaps an adjective followed by a noun), whereas "ça," as a pronoun, should generally be followed by a verb (or perhaps a reflexive pronoun followed by a verb) or come at the end of a clause.
in this case, since dress is feminine, it should be "cette" instead of "ca" as well, which would limit your options to "sa"
I'm not sure what you are asking so...
'ses' is for when one person has multiple objects. "Ses tortues."
'leur' is when multiple people have one thing. "Leur tortue."
'leurs' is when multiple people own multiple things. "Leurs tortues."
