la céréale- tous ses céréales? Tom's first day back to school

Question

c'est correct?  "et il a mangé tous ses céréales"

Accepted Answer

Hi Diana,
In the exercise there was a hint saying -
Cereal is used in the plural in French 
So it is -
 
Tom a mangé toutes ses céréales
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

Bonjour à tous !
That's quite an intriguing case you've raised here. Indeed, it started an interesting conversation among our native French speakers, as there seems to be 2 schools of thought on the matter:
- The feminine is the correct form, as the word "céréale" is officially feminine.
- but... a couple of us realised that we actually used the masculine when referring to "cornflakes" cereal, i.e. breakfast food, whereas we used the feminine to refer to the actual plants or types of organic cereals.
I think what we've encountered here is a case of "so many people say it wrong that it became colloquial, but it's still kinda wrong" ;)
The question has now been fixed to accept the "rightful" feminine form!
I hope that's helpful!Bonne journée à tous !

Answer

I would have said «toute sa céréale», with both «toute» and «sa» agreeing with the feminine singular noun «céréale». The exercise does not use 'cereals', but if it was (and that would be unusual in French or English in this context) - «toutes ses céréales».

Answer

ok, so there is a mistake in the text.    I did think so, and thanks

Answer

Apologies - I was wrong about the French use of 'céréales' in the plural versus English in singular. Hope the reply still helped though!

Answer

No, I think you are right.   In this context you do say " il a mangé toutes ses céréales"- there is a mistake in the text-  it should not be "tous".