"Le bébé a peint le mur de la cuisine avec sa purée."
Translation:The baby painted the kitchen wall with his mashed potatoes.
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In this context-less context, would purée always be understood to mean "mashed potatoes", or could it be any puréed food?
Having looked at several websites I see purée does mean mashed potato in the absence of any other context. I suppose in the same way we say e.g. pie and mash or bangers and mash without specifying potatoes.
Don't know where you are looking but in nearly forty years of visiting France I have only ever seen mashed potato written as pommes de terre écrasée. A puree is a different thing, incorporating butter or cream to make a smoother, thinner mix.
In British English we tend to use the word 'puree' for any type of 'mashed up' baby food, not necessarily potatoes.
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In the US as well, though we often use "pureed" as an adjective. Pureed peas or carrots or potatoes or whatever.
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But the dictionary and various websites say that la purée is mashed potatoes. It's an expression or idiom.
What's wrong with "The baby painted the kitchen wall with her mashed potatoes"? Her was a valid word on the list
It should be accepted, since bébé is used for both male and female babies. "A baby girl" when you want to be specific is "une petite fille"
Unless, of course, it's a baby brother inheriting the outfit from an older sister (Yeah, it happens--baby clothes aren't that cheap, and they grow out of them super fast). :)
It is not possible to determine what the baby's sex is from the French sentence. Already reported 3 months ago.
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The noun is masculine so, regardless of whether the baby is male or female, it is always le bébé.
This is similar to la bête, which is always feminine. From this we get "La belle et la bête" for "Beauty and the Beast", even though we know the Beast is male.
My concern is the action I suspect the baby decorated the wall with mashed potatoes.
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"The baby painted the wall of the kitchen with their mashed potatoes." is accepted and gender neutral.
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Is the word 'purée' only used for potatoes in French as in English it is used for anything that is 'pureed '?
No, it's used in French the same as in English i.e. anything that is 'pureed'! :)