Kort en Bondig
Member
English
For the purposes of visual clarity I'd like first of all to provide a relatively quick review of the functions of determinators.
Particular but unidentified
We have been watching a cat crossing the road. Nous avons vu un chat traverser la route.
We have been watching cats crossing the road. Nous avons vu des chats traverser la route.
Categorial
A cat can stay without food for days. Un chat peut se passer de manger pendant plusieurs jours.
Cats can stay without food for days. Les chats peuvent se passer de manger pendant plusieurs jours.
Our daily job is to help cats cross the road. (Whenever and whichever cats find themselves in need of crossing the road, we'll help them)
Notre tâche quotidienne est d'aider les chats à traverser la route.
Particular and identified
We have been watching the cat of our neighbors crossing the road. Nous avons vu le chat des voisins traverser la route.
We have been watching the cats of our neighbors crossing the road. Nous avons vu les chats des voisins traverser la route.
Generic
The cat is good at crossing roads. Le chat peut traverser les routes parfaitement bien.
As the table above suggests, it is the absence of grammatical differences between unidentified particular and categorial nouns in English that poses the most difficulties when trying to grasp the concept of articles in French. The method of placing the determinator "some" before a noun might help identify the noun in question as either particular (if "some" can be combined with the noun) or as categorial (if it can't). However, this method has its flaws as "some" also has an inherent limiting quality. The result is that even though the noun takes the indefinite article "des" in French it can't take on the word "some" in English. For example:
Comment est-ce qu'ils peuvent faire pousser des légumes dans ce climat ? How are they able to growsome vegetables in such a climate?
In light of this, I'd be very interested to learn about other ways of finding out as to which article to apply in French. Here is my own assumption:
On the internet there is a video that is titled like phrase number 1 and the first words in it are phrase number 2.
1. Comment faire pousser les légumes à partir de leurs restes ?
2. Comment faire pousser des légumes à partir de leurs restes ?
Does the first phrase place the emphasis that you are going to aquire the competence to grow vegetables from their parts while the second sentence is more about how to get the end result - the tangible and visible vegetables? And you can also do it over and over again but still the main point is the result itself.
I've heard that "les" gives a sort of general sense to a noun that it precedes but I think it's slightly more subtle than this. I think it gives a more general sense to the entire phrase which is difficult to describe.
The question has turned out to be quite a long read. Looking forward to your replies.
Veuillez repondre à la question dans la langue de votre préférence, soit en français ou en anglais !
Particular but unidentified
We have been watching a cat crossing the road. Nous avons vu un chat traverser la route.
We have been watching cats crossing the road. Nous avons vu des chats traverser la route.
Categorial
A cat can stay without food for days. Un chat peut se passer de manger pendant plusieurs jours.
Cats can stay without food for days. Les chats peuvent se passer de manger pendant plusieurs jours.
Our daily job is to help cats cross the road. (Whenever and whichever cats find themselves in need of crossing the road, we'll help them)
Notre tâche quotidienne est d'aider les chats à traverser la route.
Particular and identified
We have been watching the cat of our neighbors crossing the road. Nous avons vu le chat des voisins traverser la route.
We have been watching the cats of our neighbors crossing the road. Nous avons vu les chats des voisins traverser la route.
Generic
The cat is good at crossing roads. Le chat peut traverser les routes parfaitement bien.
As the table above suggests, it is the absence of grammatical differences between unidentified particular and categorial nouns in English that poses the most difficulties when trying to grasp the concept of articles in French. The method of placing the determinator "some" before a noun might help identify the noun in question as either particular (if "some" can be combined with the noun) or as categorial (if it can't). However, this method has its flaws as "some" also has an inherent limiting quality. The result is that even though the noun takes the indefinite article "des" in French it can't take on the word "some" in English. For example:
Comment est-ce qu'ils peuvent faire pousser des légumes dans ce climat ? How are they able to grow
In light of this, I'd be very interested to learn about other ways of finding out as to which article to apply in French. Here is my own assumption:
On the internet there is a video that is titled like phrase number 1 and the first words in it are phrase number 2.
1. Comment faire pousser les légumes à partir de leurs restes ?
2. Comment faire pousser des légumes à partir de leurs restes ?
Does the first phrase place the emphasis that you are going to aquire the competence to grow vegetables from their parts while the second sentence is more about how to get the end result - the tangible and visible vegetables? And you can also do it over and over again but still the main point is the result itself.
I've heard that "les" gives a sort of general sense to a noun that it precedes but I think it's slightly more subtle than this. I think it gives a more general sense to the entire phrase which is difficult to describe.
The question has turned out to be quite a long read. Looking forward to your replies.
Veuillez repondre à la question dans la langue de votre préférence, soit en français ou en anglais !
