"Les soutiens-gorge de ce magasin sont chers."

Translation: The bras from this store are expensive.

[LaChienne-Doree]

Why is soutien-gorge not plural? "soutiens-gorge" The sentence starts with "Les."

[--Roody--]

Either soutien-gorge or soutiens-gorge can be used as plural. Duo suggests the second one.

https://www.wordreference.com/fren/soutien-gorge

Bear in mind that there are four markers of the noun's plurality in this sentence:

Les1 soutiens2-gorge de ce magasin sont3 chers4.

[Ymeagain]

Although 2 and 4 are inferred from the other two as they are not voiced?

[grayman61]

Why not "The bras of this store are expensive."?

[ColinCanuck]

Seems like a valid literal translation from the French. Seems like awkward English to me though.

[Dave_in_NJ]

I always thought brassiere was a French word.

[tachyonashley123]

"Brassière" hasn't been the usual word in France since around the 1940s. I believe it's still used in Quebec.

But yes, English borrowed it from French in the first place.

[ColinCanuck]

Just checked a Quebec online store. They use Soutien-Gorge on their site.

[ShubhamSurf]

Why soutiens-gorge and not soutiens-seins? Since 'gorge' in french is 'throat' and 'soutiens' is 'to support', together it should perhaps go with 'throat support'. I always wondered how French handles things in that fashion.

[Karen_Kharatian]

Collins Fr-En dictionary:
Gorge
1) (partie du cou) throat
2) (literary) (=poitrine) breast
...

[claude295345]

It's a question of modesty.

[ShubhamSurf]

Oh, I am sorry, I was very straight forward to ask it, maybe because I am a science student and it's a common practice between us to speak openly even if it may be referring to something intimate. Pardon me.

[--Roody--]

Nobody should criticize you. But this is what's called a euphemism. The word "breast" is avoided in both English and French. This is very common. Even "brasierre" was formerly a euphemism in French because it refers to arms (bras) rather than breasts. It's no longer used in French, but it's really a double euphemism in everyday English.

[ShubhamSurf]

Thanks. I expected such kind of response but people tend to criticize even when the question is genuine. I sincerely thank you for extending your generous help.

[--Roody--]

Pas de problème.

[envacance]

I don't know how much the word breast is avoided in English, but people do tend to avoid it when talking about men, even though it's a gender neutral term and applies biologically to both sexes. There's no specific word for it that I can think of in English aside from slang ones.

[envacance]

Even a man with a normal size chest will have it called a breast if he has breast cancer. Some men feel uncomfortable with that term but it's the proper one.

[tachyonashley123]

It's not like we go to particular lengths to avoid the word "breast". If you have to talk about that body part in English, that's the polite word to use.

We can refer to a man's "breast", but this will usually be taken to mean the man in question is rather large. Otherwise i suppose we'd say "pec", although technically that's a specific muscle, or else phrase it like e.g. "the right side of his chest".

[ChrisSecor1]

When I see "Type what you hear", I keep writing it out in French--which is what I hear. But Duo wants it translated. I wonder if they could change this(??)

[AlanRPrice]

Why is "of" incorrect, rather than "from"? It's perfectly correct English