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- "My houses have no roof."
"My houses have no roof."
Translation:Mes maisons n'ont pas de toit.
28 Comments
The real question is why this man can afford so many houses but does not purchase a roof.
I had many houses made of Lego when I was a kid, and many of them had no roof, for better manipulation with the toys inside :-)
EDIT: another option - I've heard that in Greece tax must be paid for buildings since they have a roof - so there are many houses without any roof. Especially those who have money for more houses can have saved them on taxes.
Yes, the Brits used to a have a window tax which is so many are filled in especially in the upscale neighorhoods. This was long ago though perhaps pre-Victorian age.
Interestingly it actually ended up becoming a styled feature. It's not uncommon to see modern houses with pseudo-windows put in, despite there being no actual window there. Perhaps it is because of that link to the richer neighbourhoods, that it is done.
It's interesting to see how such things affect culture though.
The only reason I can think of is that since in negative construction in French, "de" is a form of the partitive article meaning "any", perhaps the plural is implied..?
I know the grammar isn't exactly the same in Spanish and French, but in Spanish it is "Mis casas no tienen techo" (techo = singular). I can't explain why, but I guess it's correct.
But in English it sounds so wrong that I am about to report it. We can be lazy with plurals sometimes: "we do not have a meal", but this sentence is just completely unnatural.
An aside for the French speakers learning the nuances of English, why is hooves the plural of hoof whilst roofs (not rooves) is the plural of roof?
Why is "pas des toits" not accepted? Does the negative form necessarily need to be singular, or is this just duolingo being strict?
It can be singular or plural depending on how many you'd normally have in an affirmative sentence. Je n'ai pas d'amis is more likely than je n'ai pas d'ami, I believe. Furthermore in the negative, it's always de and not des.
It is actually a very simple rule that is super easy to remember. When you have an indefinite article (un/une/des) or a partitive article (de la /de l' /du /des) in a negative construction, the indefinite/partitive article will change to simply "de", meaning "any".
E.g.:
"J'ai un velo" ---> "Je n'ai pas de velo"
or
"Je bois du vin" ---> "Je ne bois pas de vin"
Another funny point: the end of the French sentence is very similar to "pas du tout", "not at all". So the houses have no roof at all.
Perhaps "Mes maisons sont sans toit(s)", but there would be no "de" after "sans".
