"There are a lot of stairs in this apartment building."
Translation:Il y a beaucoup d'escaliers dans cet immeuble.
23 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
In the previous questions the answer was "Il descend l'escalier" - He is going down the stairs (plural). Here following "beaucoup de" it requires "escaliers" for a lot of stairs (again, plural). Is there a rule about this?
727
I feel like a more literal translation of escalier would be "staircase" or "set of stairs" but this is usually an inelegant translation to use in a sentence - you don't really say "he is going down the staircase". In the case of the apartment, I would presume there are multiple sets of stairs and not one big staircase, so I guess that is why we are it is talking about plural escaliers.
I was thrown by the addition of apartment in this sentence but it not being required in the answer.
The translation is "building" and does not describe apartment building as was asked in the exercise. Is the translation for immueble limited to apartment buildings? I thought it could be any building. Does the French word apartments not refer to the building? I'm confused.
il y a des immeubles d'appartements et des immeubles de bureaux et également des immeubles mixtes.
- 1310
Here both les and des would be wrong, and both could be correct in another context.
It has to do with beaucoup de, which is not usually followed by a definite nor an indefinite article.
- 405
i think what some people are asking is why is it escaliers in this task when all other times it's been escalier??
'immeuble' is any building so why is 'immeuble d'appartement' incorrect?
apartment building" c'est bien un immeuble d'appartements et Duo refuse le terme appartements et dit "immeuble" tout court
- 798
if you reported it, there is nothing else to be done. this is a quiz and new material is being tested. we have been presented with 'immeuble', and it's not unreasonable for duowl to want you to use new material in your answer. it's not unreasonable to think that 'immeuble d'appartements' is redundant. 'bâtiment d'appartement' might be acceptable. https://www.wordreference.com/fren/immeuble and https://www.wordreference.com/fren/appartement and https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/apartment%20building
- 870
Earlier in this lesson, I was told "l'escaliers" was wrong and should be "les escaliers."
So I assumed this one would be "des escaliers." Apparently it is not.
Why would it be "les escaliers" but not "des escaliers"?
- 727
Because it is not "des escaliers" it is "beaucoup de escaliers", which because two vowels are next to each other shortens it to "beaucoup d'escaliers". you can have "l'escalier" for a singular set of stairs but "les escaliers" for multiple sets, which doesn't get shortened because the s in "les" means there aren't two vowels next to each other.
Sorry but immeuble is a building and not specifically an apartment building. Why include the word 'apartment', if you don't want it reflected in the answer? Duo could have simply asked for a translation of 'there are a lot of stairs in this building'.
- 870
But then shouldn't "l'escaliers" also be correct? It was marked wrong for me earlier in this lesson.
It's because the plural form is "les escaliers" for the singular "l'escalier". And "beaucoup" is followed by "de". They make up a set, so "de" does not change into "des" when it comes after "beaucoup". That's why it's "beaucoup d'escaliers" in this sentence.
Why is "Il y a beaucoup d'escaliers dans cet appartement" incorrect? If we're talking about an apartment building, is it really necessary to put "immeuble"? Are there any distinctions between an apartment and an apartment building in French?
- 798
'apartment' may be an 'apartment building' in english but 'appartement' might not be 'an appartment building' in french. https://www.wordreference.com/fren/appartement and https://www.wordreference.com/enfr/apartment%20building