"Ma sœur a des recettes de crêpes au chocolat."

Translation: My sister has some chocolate crepe recipes.

[countvlad]

why is the singular, 'crêpe', not accepted here; I had the plural at first, then changed it. aghhhhhhhh

[Sitesurf]

chances are that if you took the pain to prepare the recipe you will actually bake several crêpes.

if it were: "... des recettes de rôti de veau", you would most probably have it in singular.

[wordofchristian]

Is there a way to determine this just from listening? My major beef with the French language is that it's difficult to transcribe without the prerequisite knowledge of the usual serving size of a crêpe recipes.

[Sitesurf]

Basically, it needs about the same amount of dough than a pancake but it is over twice the diameter and less than half the thickness (nearly transparent).
Maybe a look at Google/Images would help.

[Michael-Sheridan]

Crepes are not baked, they are fried :) By the way, how does one form a circumflex with a keyboard?

[wordofchristian]

http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/finetypography/ht/circumflex.htm

[Michael-Sheridan]

Many thanks. Have a lingot :)

[knovs]

Should we hear the "s" between "crepes" and "au"?

[Sitesurf]

No, that is not needed.

[eellrraatt]

My sister has got chocolate "crêpes" recipes. - The English don't know letter 'ê'. Or?

[n6zs]

Typically, the use of diacritical marks is not used in writing English. This is not a failure, it is just a reflection that when the English borrowed the word "crêpe", they did not include the ^.

[eliana_25]

what is the difference between avec and au?

[Sitesurf]

preposition "à" is used to introduce an added ingredient: crêpe au chocolat (au = à-le), crêpe à la menthe (mint), crêpe aux champignons (mushrooms)...

"avec" would not be used for that.

[Chartreux]

I actually wrote "My sister has some recipes for crepes with chocolate." and it was accepted but is it a correct translation?

[Pigslew]

Understandable but somewhat foreign-sounding. "Some chocolate crepe recipes" more natural, and accepted.

[igesta]

"des recettes de crêpes": is this descriptive "de"?

"la nourriture des éléphants": is this possessive "de"?

I found it from this site http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_4.htm, yet it's still not 100% clear to me.

can I safely say that if it's a non-living being, it'll always be descriptive?

[Sitesurf]

The nuance between possessive and descriptive is that the latter does not require an article:

• la nourriture de l'éléphant, le fils de Pierre (no article with names, of course), la poignée de la porte

• la recette de crêpes, la feuille de papier, le tas de pierres

If you can use a possessive in English (the elephant's food, Peter's son or the door's handle), the French will be possessive (with article).

If you can use the simple "noun of noun" or "noun noun" in English (sheet of paper, crepe recipe, pile of stones), the French will be "noun of noun" (no article)

[igesta]

thanks, that helps a lot :)

[kayleetegan]

when do you use de as opposed to des when there is a plural aside from quantity and negative statements

[Sitesurf]

for nouns of nouns, please read above.

[Jackittie]

Why was "crêpes aux chocolat" incorrect?

[northernguy]

Crepes is plural but au refers to chocolate which is in singular form.

[cricri811231]

I do not understand the structure of this sentence, I explain to you !

for me ; my sister has some recipes of chocolate crepe !

but the position of the word " recipe " at the end of a sentence ?

I do not understand it ?

[Jamal51969]

Why not des crepes

[Sitesurf]

The construction is a "noun of noun", where the second noun, without an article, gives further information on the first noun in terms of content, material, quality or purpose.

• une recette de crêpes = a crepe recipe
• une bouteille de lait = a bottle of milk
• une bouteille de verre = a glass bottle

[Jamal51969]

Will try to memorize the structure, thanks.