#honeydabee
1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)
Our volunteers look into many questions every day; sometimes it takes them a little while to answer.
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.
haha
I guess I just don't know if there is some special rule with potato.
So far all of the other dishes were like "des choses" and "de chose", so I thought the pattern would continue
It depends on if the description noun is countable or not
It’s like a quantity in that regard
Beaucoup d’eau vs beaucoup de pommes
Same idea
Do you have examples of this?
It’s not, it’s the possessive « de »
But countability impacts plurality
So in this sentence
Mais, mon plat préféré est une salade de betteraves, avec du céleri et des carottes râpées.
Beetroot salad (Salad of beetroots), the celery and some grated carrots
And you're saying its gratin holding the potatoes like the salad is
I didn't know whether I could continue my other thread sorry!
Salad of beetroots with some celery and some grated carrottes
Notice how the English translation also has plural nouns for countable nouns (beetroot and carrot) and a singular noun for an uncountable one (celery)
So its not only that its possessive, but how it interacts with countable nouns
Yeah
I'm going to have to do more research. I didn't see an example of plural with a "de" in that page, so I thought it was a different rule
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/de-vs-du-de-la-des-description/
Sometimes the choice between de and du, de la, des is simply a question of whether you're describing a noun or indicating a possessor.
But I suppose in these examples, only one of object is already confirmed (le livre), so I need to use my imagination more
Ahhh good example
Okay I am finally picking up what you're throwing down
I let the translation of it to "potato gratin" trip me up. I'll ignore that next time
It was a fill in a blank and thats how they gave hints, so the english didn't help haha
Alright! I'm working on reading more and found some good exercises to practice my words so there is that. Thanks again!
Yeah I kept reading and found a ton examples with "de pommes de terre" being used that way which helped! Hooray!
I was gonna say the saaaaame 😂 This is more of a math question than a French question. Count the dang potates
A special rule with one potato sounds magical 😂. Potato laws. When there is only one, you must bestow a kiss before consuming
I mean, they are the apples of the earth. If anything deserved a special rule, it would be potatoes 
What about the apples of the air
And those of the sea
Well, ofc special treatment is extended, but of the earth apples? Specialer treatment 
Apple originally referred to all fruit, and sea food is called "fruits de mer"
How'd you learn that! I love this too. Apples are really great so I'm not surprised
I think I’ve heard of this before unless I’m getting déjà vu
When someone explained pomme de terre
But
pomme doesn’t explain WHICH this is coming from the earth. It could be an evil creature crawling out from the depths as the fruit of the earth
The original word in Latin, pomum, originally meant ‘fruit’ in general. The old name for apple, malum, slowly got lost because of it sounded the same as malus (bad, evil), so pomum slowly took over its place
This took centuries so you still have pomme being used as a term for fruit like « pomme de terre » for the New World vegetable found post-Columbus
Malum and malus sounding the same is why European Christian stories portray the fruit that Adam and Eve ate as an apple
I was just gonna say that made me think of Eden !