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Les noms des garcons---Les recettes de crêpes--why it is in one case "des" and in another "de"
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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".
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This is an awfully awkward translation. In English, you really would say, Are these the crepes' recipes ?
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I would say the crepe recipes, or, more likely, recipes for crepes. Crepes' recipes means recipes belonging to crepes, which doesn't make sense.
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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
That would be marked correct except the French text says nothing about 'Are these' .
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This should be 'des crepes' should it not? There is no adjective in front of the plural noun to change the 'des' to 'de'.
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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".
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.
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Couldn't this also be a generality, with a translation of just "recipes for crepes?"
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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!
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"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
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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.
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But "Tu apprends des mots." seems to be words in general, not specific words, and that uses des.
That was so hard to understand, i didn't hear recette even though i listened to it repeatedly...ugh
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Bad English. Recipes of mother are for crepes. Food does not produce recipes
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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"?
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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.
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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.
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This sentence is really weird. Surely, it is not common to ask for multiple recipes for one type of food. That and in the translation, "for" instead of "of" sounds more natural. A recipe of crepes sounds like the recipe is transmitted with crepes, rather than being a recipe for the production of crepes.
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Surely 'crêpes' are pancakes. We don't have crêpes in English.
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Nope. Crepes are generally thinner, crisper and lighter than pancakes
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Thank you but how do you say 'pancakes' in French? I had always learned that 'crêpes ' were 'pancakes'
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@JaneBowtel
"Crêpes" are indeed what are called "pancakes" in the UK. The French crêpe and the British pancake are the same thing.
There are other types of pancake but these are referred to specifically as Scots or Welsh pancakes etc.
Outside of the UK the term pancake usually refers to what Brits call "American style pancakes" to distinguish them from "real" pancakes ;)
In French an American style pancake is "un pancake".
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You've got me there Jane! In Australia we distinguish crepes from pancakes, as I said, but I think the French only cook crepes! I guess it is the difference between French finesse and British/Australian cooking styles.
