#miketuan

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

rugged saddleBOT
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Please be patient

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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.

honest fossil
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Aucun and aucune are typically used with singular nouns, either countable or uncountable, you’re totally right but when dealing with nouns that are only used in the plural form, French still uses "aucun" or "aucune," but the noun remains plural.
"Aucun frais" and "Aucune vacances"
are some examples. In these cases, "aucun/aucune" essentially absorbs the plural meaning of the noun. The idea is still that there is "not a single one" or "none," even though the noun itself only exists in the plural form

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For your second question, d'aucuns/d'aucunes is used as a pronoun meaning "some people," and the construction "d'" is due to the partitive sense (some of them), which contracts before a vowel. The form "des aucuns" would incorrectly imply a definite article, which does not fit the indefinite nature of the expression, I hope that makes sense. If it doesn’t I can try breaking it down further just let me know 😅

median dagger
peak oxide
honest fossil
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In this case des is the plural indefinite article meaning "some" or simply indicating a plural noun without specifying a quantity. It doesn’t contract to "d'" before a vowel. So, "J'ai des amis" means "I have friends"

peak oxide
honest fossil
# peak oxide oh, so just some words have this sort of contraction?

I kinda understand your confusion here. "Des" would typically be used before a noun (you gave a good example of this, des amis) but "d'aucuns" functions more like a pronoun or a determiner. Since "aucuns" is functioning as a pronoun here (not as a noun with a plural article) the form is "d'aucuns"

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D’aucuns is a formal literary way to say "some people" or "certain people, I don’t think you should be stressing about knowing it too much

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“d’amis” can be possible but not in the sense of “j’ai d’amis”, it works when it’s a negative sentence “Je n'ai pas d'amis”

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J’ai des amis, je n’ai pas des amis.

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But that’s an entirely different topic, sorry if I’m confusing you

peak oxide
honest fossil