...ce qui me causait de grosses douleurs dans les gencives...

Question

I thought it was "de grosse douleur" - singular - and can't think of any way of being able to hear whether it was singular or plurial. Does it have to be plural because the gums are plural? In English we could say "pain in my gums", but in French perhaps it's necessary to say "pains in my gums"? Or would "ce qui me causait de grosse douleur dans les gencives" still be correct?

[By the way - there's a typo in the full text - "genvices" for "gencives"...]

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Jim,
I have fixed the typo on 'gencives'.
As for 'de grosses douleurs', it couldn't be singular as 'de' here is for 'des', which is a plural.
"Des" becomes " de/d' " in front of adjectives preceding nouns (French Articles)
The singular would have been :
... une grosse douleur.

Jim Luetchford · Answer

Merci Cécile - d'oh !  J'ai un déclic maintenant ! Comment ai-je pu ne pas voir cela avant ?