"Cette commerçante propose de belles choses."
Translation:This shopkeeper offers beautiful things.
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1295
From my understanding Des is used for some when there's no adjective before the plural noun:
Des choses
De is used before any plural adjective:
De belles choses
http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/translation/keywords/de.html
1223
I would also like an answer to this question, if anyone has it -- I wrote the plural (since shopkeepers generally flood one with offered objects) but was wondering if the singular was also acceptable.
« Proposer » is not a verb that requires a preposition after it. So « des choses » is the French indefinite plural “(some) things” and in front of an adjective it becomes « de belles choses », but the singular of “some” would be “a” (or “an” if there were a vowel following.) So, you would not use de belle chose here as it would be « une belle chose ». That would definitely sound differently.
https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/proposer
https://www.thoughtco.com/introduction-to-french-articles-1368810
1223
Thank you All into Learning! Great explanation! I am still challenged by the French des.
"Des" has seemingly been understood as "some" due to an unfortunate display of an optional interpretation. In fact, "des" is only the plural of "un/une". There is no actual counterpart for this in English.
- The plural of "un livre" is "des livres". The plural of "book" is "books" (not "some" books).
Some people may use the word "some" here but when used in this sense, it is almost always omitted in English. Consider these others ways that the English word "some" is used
- a subset/portion of a larger collection
- a little, to a small degree
- some, as in "some people", e.g., "some have called him a great man".
- to show anger, e.g., "some people!"
- to show delight, e.g., "that was some dinner".
- and more ....
1481
I thought that "some beautiful things" was also an accurate translation. Am I mistaken?
You could report that, if it is the only thing that is different from the accepted answer, as another alternate correct translation. I cannot verify though as you did not give the complete sentence that you entered. Keep in mind that in English we don’t often add some unless we are stressing some and in that case there is another French word which would be used to stress some.
1547
"Proposer" as "suggest" would be used in the context of doing something, i.e., followed by a verb phrase. In the context of shop items, "offer" is a better fit.
I think there may be other French words that are closer to that:
« négociant » or « marchand »
https://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/merchant
You could try reporting it. Perhaps someone else had reported it for a different sentence. I personally would not use “merchant” when I mean shopkeeper, but others might.
https://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/shopkeeper
See a merchant can be « marchand » and a shopkeeper can be « marchand » as the word has more than one meaning.
It looks as though “merchant” can certainly be used for storekeeper,
“Propose” means more than just “has”. The shopkeeper is suggesting beautiful things. The shopkeeper is trying to influence you to buy them. So, “offers” is possible. They might be on sale or they might be special and worth the customer’s time. I think “suggests” and “proposes” should also be allowed for this.
Retailer is more specific and would be “commerçante détaillant”. https://dictionary.reverso.net/french-english/commercante