Le goût des autres

Question

I've re-read the lesson on when to use "d'autres" and "des autres" and I don't quite understand why "the taste of others" is "le goût des autres". I thought that would only be the case if it was specific other people "the taste of the others", and in the case of this film title it should be "le goût d'autres" - a general case of the taste of unspecified others. What am I missing here please?

Accepted Answer

Hi Paul,
I think that the problem here is that in French the phrase 'les autres' mean 'other people'.
Think of the well-known quote from Jean-Paul Sartre's play 'Huis Clos' ( In-Camera/  No exit) -
L'enfer, c'est les autres = Hell is other people 
so,  'des autres' will  mean 'of /from other people' in general terms.
Le goût des autres = Other people's taste/ The taste of Others 
Hope this helps!

Answer

In this context, "des autres" seems correct to me - since "les autres" means other people in general, i.e. "all other people" rather than "some other people".

But I couldn't understand why "des autres" was used here:

https://progress.lawlessfrench.com/questions/view/les-couples-des-autres

(Unfortunately this never got an answer.)