Follow-up question on your answer about des versus les

LorieC1Kwiziq community member

Follow-up question on your answer about des versus les

Hi Chris, But the English translation above says: These doctors see patients from eight to five.

That does not sound like they are seeing specific patients to me. It sounds like this is the timeframe in which they see any patients. What am I missing?

Asked 4 years ago
MaartenC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

«les patients» is used in the general sense here - in English it would simply be 'These doctors see/take (receive) patients' and no article is needed. (If it was specific patients, English would also need 'the' definite article) Using le, la, l', les before nouns when generalising (definite articles)%252Fsearch%253Fs%253Ddefinite%252Barticle%252Bgeneral  «des amis» on the other hand is used as 'some friends' - a countable number that however has been left unquantified in this sentence.  Du/de la/de l'/des = Some/any (French Partitive Articles) rts=%252Fsearch%253Fs%253Dpartitive%252Barticle

Follow-up question on your answer about des versus les

Hi Chris, But the English translation above says: These doctors see patients from eight to five.

That does not sound like they are seeing specific patients to me. It sounds like this is the timeframe in which they see any patients. What am I missing?

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