Plural "des"

DonnaB2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Plural "des"

When I answered one of the questions with "J'ai honte des mes infidélités," it was marked wrong in favor of "J'ai honte de mes infidélités." Yet one of the examples on this page is almost identical and it used "des" as I did: "Thomas a honte des opinions de certains hommes." Confusing. Can you help explain please?
Asked 6 years ago
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
In the sentence "J'ai honte de mes infidélités." you have a oersonal pronoun (mes) between "de" and "infidélités", and the personal pronoun already indicates the plural. Therefore it is simply "de" instead of "des". The second example "Thomas a honte des opinions...." there is no pronoun and hence you need "des". Hope this helps, -- Chris (not a native speaker).
DonnaB2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Yes, it does! Thanks.
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Donna ! To simply complete Chris' explanation, "des" is the contraction of "de + les" (of + the), but in "de mes infidélités", "les" is replaced by "mes" (of + my), therefore no contraction :) Bonne journée !
DonnaB2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Bonjour Aurélie! I appreciate your additional explanation. It's even easier to understand now. What an incredibly complex language this is! I'm grateful to have this site to help me through it. Merci beaucoup!
ChrisC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
It is my theory that every language has about the same level of complexity simply because people have, on average, similar needs to express themselves. But it might be more difficult to adjust fro, one way of thinking to a another one depending on what you are used to. Neither English nor German has noun cases, for example. German has four, Russion six and Croatian seven. English has fewer grammatical rules but is one of the indo-european languages with the largest vocabulary. I guess each language has its own area of complexity. Certainly a point to mull over.... Best wishes, -- Chris.
DonnaB2Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Hi Chris, I came in assuming that, but I'm starting to change my mind because of the random illogic and inconsistency of French verb conjugations. Changing a spelling to help with pronunciation makes total sense to me. But there are so many quirky exceptions that serve no purpose whatsoever! What I love about Kwiziq is that the quizzes ease them in on you gradually, so you can master them and move on. That helps, at least! But it's astounding how many quirks there are. Still, it's a gorgeous language. I suspect that mastering a language that prefers "tour d'horizon" to a prosaic word like "overview" will open the door to a marvelous new world. Do you find your way of seeing the world changes with each of the languages you mention?

Plural "des"

When I answered one of the questions with "J'ai honte des mes infidélités," it was marked wrong in favor of "J'ai honte de mes infidélités." Yet one of the examples on this page is almost identical and it used "des" as I did: "Thomas a honte des opinions de certains hommes." Confusing. Can you help explain please?

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