"Les recettes de crêpes ?"

Translation: The recipes of crepes?

[Radoja]

Les noms des garcons---Les recettes de crêpes--why it is in one case "des" and in another "de"

[Goran12]

In the first case, you have some concrete boys, "the boys" ("les garcons"), in the second just "crepes" in general, no article. "De" + "les" in the first case becomes "des".

[apvalenti]

This is an awfully awkward translation. In English, you really would say, Are these the crepes' recipes ?

[cjchem]

I would say the crepe recipes, or, more likely, recipes for crepes. Crepes' recipes means recipes belonging to crepes, which doesn't make sense.

[python_erlang]

I would prefer "the crepe recipes" depending on context. I would definitely say, for example, "Do you have the chicken recipe" as opposed to "the chicken's recipe" in English

[RockyRogue]

That would be marked correct except the French text says nothing about 'Are these' .

[Maltagerr]

Recipe for crêpes

[DuFarge]

This should be 'des crepes' should it not? There is no adjective in front of the plural noun to change the 'des' to 'de'.

[salpfish]

Des = de + les. The sentence isn't taking about "THE crepes", but just "crepes" in general.

If it were "de les crêpes", you'd contract it to "des crêpes", but since there's no "les", you leave it as "de crêpes".

[SongbirdSandra]

Why wouldn't it be "The crepe recipes"?
Recipes is the thing that is plural, not crepe.
For example, I would say the omlette recipes, not the omlettes recipes.

[JesusLivesInMe]

Worked for me-2/17/16

[bclemer]

Couldn't this also be a generality, with a translation of just "recipes for crepes?"

[SueWaller]

I said "the crepes recipe" and was marked wrong because I used the singular "recipe" instead of plural. However, you can have one recipe for crepes in English! And crepes is not possessive in this case!

[Jacquie529206]

in englis it would be recipe for crepes

[CJ.Dennis]

"The recipes of crêpes" is really unnatural. It should be "The crêpe recipes" (singular crêpe, plural recipes). A single crêpe recipe makes multiple crêpes.

"recipe(s) of X" is also unnatural, unless X is a person or an organisation.

• The recipes of Heston Blumenthal
• The recipes of the Women's Auxiliary Group

[ninaecon]

Would love an answer to Radoja's query...

[apvalenti]

Isn't that because the meaning is "The recipes for any crepe"?, If des was used the meaning would change to "The recipes for THE crepes", which doesn't make much sense. Les noms des garçons means the "names of those boys" not the names of ALL boys.

[cjchem]

But "Tu apprends des mots." seems to be words in general, not specific words, and that uses des.

[Fairlie]

Thanks, apvalenti. That finally explains it!

[jhefer]

why not des??

[CosettieMew]

That was so hard to understand, i didn't hear recette even though i listened to it repeatedly...ugh

[Meekus]

Why is it possessive? Do the recipes belong to the crepes?!

[rjohnmartyn]

The crepes recipe. How many recipes do you have for a crepe?

[AllanManch]

Bad English. Recipes of mother are for crepes. Food does not produce recipes

[Mary3080]

how do i do a profile picture?

[Bis612099]

You probably got this by now but this sentence doesn't quite work [no-one's perfect ;-)] and it's left me unsure exactly how to say- Crepe recipes. Is it, Des recettes du crêpes? As in, more than one recipe for crêpes? Or is it still "Des recettes de crêpes"?

[mvhj]

Is recettes only used in plural? I was wondering since so far I've seen no example of a singular use of the word here on duo. Would "une recette de crêpe(s)" be completely intolerable? I don't mean as a translation of this sentence, but in general. Googling doesn't really seem to give clear answers.

[Roody-Roo]

I think it's a noun phrase. In English we would say "crepe recipes". We just stick the two nouns together, sort of using the first noun as an adjective. You can't do that in French. Instead, you have to say recettes de crêpes.