"Years or months?"

Translation: Des années ou des mois ?

[candaceh]

So in this one, why is "Des ans ou des mois" not correct? There's no context for which "year" to use

[Sitesurf]

Generally, "an" is used with a number : un an, dix ans... and "année" otherwise.

[extremeblueness]

"an" is quantitative and "annee" is qualitative.

[NessaNessaJoy]

to say 'year' you can say 'un ans' or 'une année'. to discuss years as they go by and not the events in them, use the first one. to talk about things that happen inside a year, use the female one. it's like the difference between 'beau matin' and 'belle matinée'.

[Sitesurf]

"un AN" (no "s")

[Buraksenel]

Can somebody explain why it is wrong to say "Les année ou les mois?

[Sitesurf]

I assume it would have been "the years or the months" in English.

Remember that "des années ou des mois" is the plural of "une année ou un mois"

[Buraksenel]

I see. Merci!

[xakk]

I am wondering why this would be wrong as well ? How do we know the context of this question ? It could be referring to anything from asking a doctor about a patient's history chart of medication, ( example: "Are you referring to the years or the months in which they've been taking Xanax ?" ) or it could just be a general question ( example: "Are you referring to years or months since it rained ?" ) . This is unclear to me why 'les' versus 'des' would be wrong in this case.