Owen

[agile jacinth]

Please be patient

Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.

Pro tip: you can rename the thread title with `.tr <thread name>`

Make it descriptive, including relevant context, but also to the point. This way you improve your chances of getting a more relevant and specific answer.

[slate cedar]

i mean i assume a question or matter of love would be question de l'amour no?

[wicked copper]

When de is followed by le, the two words become du. When de is followed by les, the two words become des. When de is followed by la or l’, the words do not change.

hope this helps...

[slate cedar]

i understand that

im more so asking when u omit the def article or not

this whole concept has been pissing in my cereal for the past year and i cant seem to get it

[ashen harness]

This is a descriptive de, so no article is needed unless it's speaking about « humanité » in a specific manner. Regarding your second question, I looked for « question d'amour » and « question de l'amour », and found that the former tends to be used alone (« c'est une question d'amour ») while the latter tends to be used in conjunction with another part like it's a part of a nominal group (« la question de l'amour naturel »)

That being said, this is a difficult topic

[high flame]

in your second example, bertie, amour is modified by an adjective, so, given that it's a specific type of love, it takes the article

(I think that's more or less what you're saying, but it seems clearer to me to just talk about if the noun is modified by an adjective or not)

[ashen harness]

Yeah that was my point; « question de l'amour » appears when it's modified by an adjective or something else (distinguishing something out of a group) or when it's used specifically to talk about the concept of love. Examples are like: « Fénelon et Port-Royal - La question de l'amour naturel », « La question de l'amour dans la philosophie de Vladimir Jankélévitch », « Petite balade autour de la question de l’amour »

Whereas « question d'amour » appears when it's more general and bare like « La question d'amour: comédie en un acte », « Simple question d'amour », « Juste une question d'amour »

[ashen harness]

What do you think of what I just said above? Like, which one would you choose in what context?

[spice light]

I'd say that generally "une question de" + topic uses no article before the topic

[slate cedar]

i do not know how to express my gratitude right now

this concept is so hard for me but u guys have made it easier thank you

also thank you bertie for saying "descriptive de" i did not know the name of this

i guess another thing that confuses me with "l'amour" i see stuff like "les anges de l'amour" and flynn explained to me the def article is used here cause u tend to keep it with concepts even if the descriptive "de" is used but with "question de" there is none?

unless u add an adjective

but why does that not apply to "les anges de l'amour" ou "les prissoniers de l'amour"

[devout sandal]

Anges d'amour kinda sounds like the angels are literally made of love

[ashen harness]

Maybe because « de l'amour » is about the concept of love specifically as if it's a being that captured prisoners and made angels but « d'humanité » is about the general idea of humanity like being good

it's not about the concept of humanity itself but rather what that concept entails

not too sure though

[native aspen]

Une question de l'humanité => a question from humanity
Une question d'humanité=> a question about humanity (approx) -> a matter of humanness