"The women have dresses."
Translation:Les femmes ont des robes.
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The choice between "les" and "des" is meaning driven/
The women = Les femmes, specific women
Dresses = "des robes", the plural of "une robe", with "des" as the plural indefinite article that English does not have. It is required when the meaning is "more than one".
Thank you. So if it is: The women have the red dresses, that would be - Les femmes ont LES robes rouge (?)
I'm confused. 'Les femmes', means that there are more than 1 . So how come it isn't used for dresses? Why isn't it 'les robes'?
To know which articles to use in French, put the sentence in the singular:
The women ---> the woman: specific "La femme"
have ---> has "a"
dresses ---> a dress: indefinite "une robe".
Now, go back to the original sentence in plural and remember that the plural of "la" is "les" and the plural of "une" is "des".
The women have dresses = Les femmes ont des robes.
1545
It is "les femmes" when you are either talking about all women in general or about all the women in some implied or overt group or situation. Now if those women that you are talking about have all the dresses that exist (again dresses in general or in some grouping of dresses) then you could say les robes. But when the women that you are talking about are not the only ones who have dresses you say "des robes". To summarize: "les x x x" is all inclusive. "des x x x x" = "more than one and less than all" implied or overt".
My answer was exactly the same as the official answer but it was marked as wrong. Second time this has happened to me today.
Would there be a liaison here? Les femme (z)ont des robes? Or would that sound too similar to Les femmes sont des robes? (even though that doesn't make sense)
No, a liaison is not welcome here, because "femmes" is a noun.
Yet, the liaison would required after a plural personal pronoun.
But the sound you can hear when you liaise "elles_ont" is Z, not S as in "elles sont".
"A" is the conjugation for the 3rd person singular (has) but "the women" is plural = les femmes ont.
The women = plural of "the woman" = les femmes
The women have = les femmes ont
The woman = la femme
The woman has = la femme a
"Avons" is the conjugation for "nous". For ils/elles (3rd person plural), you need "ont".
What does "des" mean? Why can't I just say "Les femmes ont robes"?
"Des robes" is the plural of "une robe".
English does not have a plural form for "a/an", but French has a plural indefinite article and it is required with the meaning of "more than one".
"Des" is the plural of "une". In English, the usual plural of "a dress" is "dresses". You don't need "some". The meaning may be "some dresses", but meaning and translation may be different.
- 1545
Literally you are correct as in English "some" or "some of" is understood. Literally it means "The women have (some of all the) dresses (that are in existence).
I find myself often forgetting to include des in situations like this. Suggestions on how to remember to include it?
Just remember that bare nouns are rare in French, so maybe think twice before using one.
Whenever the singular noun would have "un" or "une", because "des" is the plural of "un/une".
In the English sentence, "dresses" is the plural of "a dress", so in French the plural of "une robe" is "des robes".