Des autres vs d’autres

Question

Regarding this test question and my wrong answer and correct answer: “How would you say "One has to earn others' respect." in French?

Il faut gagner le respect des autres. (Correct)

Il faut gagner le respect d’autres. (My wrong answer)

I’ve read the lesson numerous times as well as the discussion below and nothing explains why I was marked wrong on this question. Is there something about “il faut” that is like “se server de” in the lesson’s example that would require “DES autres” instead of “d’autre”? The translation is not “of THE others”, just the more general “others”.

Cécile Janty-Davies · Accepted Answer

Hi Betsy,
In the sentence -
Il faut gagner le respect des autres

les autres = other people 
gagner le respect de quelqu'un = to earn the respect of someone
de + les = des

in the sentence you suggest -
il faut gagner le respect d'autres ...
this sentence is incomplete and I want to say - d'autres quoi ? as here 'autres' is an adjective.

Il faut contacter d'autres personnes = We must contact other people 
il faut contacter les autres = We must contact the others

Hard to explain but I hope this helps!

Jim Jones · Answer

Bonjour Betsy,I think in this case you are dealing with the pronoun "les autres" and you need to express that it is required to earn the respect of le others  --> (de les) des autres      (de being a preposition.)Il faut gagner le respect des autresBonne journéeJim

Randy West · Answer

I have the same question on the same question.  "Others" here is unspecified,  just the general anyone in the world, and so would seem to be more appropriately "d'autres." Or is the sentence meaning that one must earn the respect of everyone, i.e., ALL the others? That, I could see, might be properly translated "des autres."

Randy West · Answer

(I can't figure out how to delete this duplicate.)