"Est-ce que tu as les recettes de légumes ?"

Translation:Do you have the vegetable recipes?

January 20, 2013



"Des" is not the plural of "de". Des = de + les.

January 20, 2013


It's both actually.

"Des" can be an indefinite article along side with "un" and "une" which are used for masculine and feminine nouns respectively. 'Des' is used for both masculine and feminine nouns that are plural. So technically, it's the plural of "un, une"

"Des" can also be a partitive article, along side with"du, de la, de l' and des".

Du= de+le, used with masculine nouns. De la, is used with feminine nouns. De l' , is used with both masculine and feminine nouns starting with a vowel. Des= de+ les, used with both masculine and feminine plural nouns.

Indefinite articles are used with countable nouns, and partitive articles are used with uncountable nouns.

So depending on whether the noun is countable or not, "des" is either an indefinite article or a partitive article.

You could fact check on; http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_2.htm

April 8, 2014


i thought vegetable recipes = "les recettes DES legumes"? not "les recettes DE legumes"?

i thought all the different parts had to match singular/plural??

January 20, 2013


I agree, but for a different reason... Every lesson up to this point has made it very clear that nouns must always have an article. So, any time you talk about some amount of vegetables, it MUST be "a vegetable" ("une légume") or "some vegetables" ("des légumes") or "the vegetables" ("les légumes").

So, either this sentence is introducing a new rule or it's incorrect. It sounds incorrect to me, just because I've been thoroughly conditioned (up to now) to always have an article in front of a noun.

I am aware (from reading elsewhere) that things like professions are exceptions to the rule... For example, "I am professor" is correct in French (to use an extremely literal translation). Clearly, vegetables don't qualify for this exception.

February 1, 2014


They do except when it's between two nouns in which the second one is unspecified (for more; http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_3.htm), so "de" here would correspond to the English word "of" rather than being an infinitive or partitive article (see definitions in my comment above).

And except when there's an adjective before the noun.


  1. Des pommes ( used as an indefinite article, so it mean "apples" as in "some apples")
  2. De bonnes pommes (meaning; good apples)
  3. Jus de fruits (meaning; fruit juice)
April 8, 2014


is it normal that she always pronounce "recettes" as "rossettes? I thought there should be a schwa sound, not "o"

May 12, 2013


NO. The audio on this is awful. Please report it when in sounds really off.

February 2, 2014


This seems to be correct because de = of and des = some.

February 19, 2013


Why is "... de légume" wrong? Or more to the point, how could I have told from the sound or other cues that it was "de(s) légumes" and not "de legume"? Is it just convention that one can't have "vegetable recipes" and must instead have "vegetables' recipes" instead?

March 31, 2013


Yes, I'd like to know that one, too. I don't mind being wrong, but not knowing why is a shame!

March 31, 2013


My guess is because the de legumes is serving as a kind of adjective to describe the plural recettes, so it is also plural.

May 1, 2014


I think "des"means some and "de" means of - as in recipes of vegetables if translated literally

August 12, 2013


ahhh where's the teacher when you need one!!!

May 24, 2013


Can someone confirm this one.. i would have thought ...des legumes' also.

March 18, 2013


I answered "de légume" (because I heard "de" instead of "des") and got it wrong. Then I did some google translates:

recipes of the vegetables : recettes de légumes

benefits of the vegetables : avantages des légumes

recipes of the meats : recettes de viandes

taste of the meats : goût des viandes

and yet

recipe of the vegetables : recette des légumes

recipe of vegetables : recette de légumes

recipe of the vegetable : recette du legume

I guess it's just an exception that we'll find when saying "recipes of (food category)" in French because of a reason still unknown to me (I hope someone here will explain). I don't know if there are others nouns with the same exception ["nouns/noun of (a category)"].

Explain anybody?

March 23, 2014


I hope this can help some of you still looking for an answer here...

I am still a beginner and by no means a French expert, but I did take a few classes and I learnt that there are some instances where "de" is used without an article.

Such as when describing quantities, like a litre of milk or a cup of flour, we say "un litre DE lait" and "deux tasses DE farine" without using "du", "de la" or "des".

In the above example, we are not actually talking about vegetables, we are talking about recipes (i.e. this is the noun), and the recipes contain vegetables. So we use "de" alone because we are describing a quantity of vegetables (i.e. "des recettes de légumes")

The reason it is "légumes" and not "légume" is because the recipes contain more than one vegetable, they are recipes of vegetables plural. In english we do not have this distinction, so it seems more natural to say vegetable recipes instead of vegetables recipes.

This is my understanding at least...correct me if I am wrong please!

April 5, 2014


This should explain it; http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/de-vs-du-de-la-des_3.htm

If it doesn't, tell me. I'll try myself.

April 8, 2014


Est-ce que tu as les recettes des légumes ? Is it Ok? Not? Why not? de+les= "des art. - déterminant défini = bestimmter Begleiter, zusammengesetzt aus de + les"

April 6, 2013


I think the first des is de+les. the de is for avoir, so like "avoir+de." The second de between recettes and legumes IS "de" because it's just de from "de=of"

July 15, 2013


The pronunciation is making it hard not to get an 'incorrect' answer. As long as she is pronouncing it 'des' and not 'de', how are we to get it right? Aarrrrgh!

April 15, 2014


so close, and yet, so far. I wrote, "Est-ce que tu as les recettes des légumes?" I'll never get why it's de légumes & not des légumes...

September 9, 2013


because it´s like the recipes of vegetables (vegetable recipes), which makes "de" a word that specifies a TYPE of recipes and has nothing to do with real vegetables that would require an article.

it´s like: 'Game of Thrones' <- what KIND of game? - not: 'Game of the Thrones'.

Am I right?

September 14, 2013


It's the best explanation so far. But I would like sitesurf or another native speaker to corroborate it, s'il vous plait.

Specially because I'm almost sure that there was another (less advanced) exercise where the phrase "recettes DES légumes" was included. Probably the affirmative version of this one.

October 21, 2013


Best explanation, thanks zeedo!

June 17, 2014


Do you have the receipts for the vegetables? Does that not work at all? Recettes can be translated as receipts after all...

November 14, 2013


I thought vegetable recipes are better translated with vegetarian recipes but was marked wrong

March 14, 2014


why does it say de instead of des? r they interchangeable?

April 22, 2014


in this context des would mean some. This is asking for receipes "of" vegetables if translated literally. So de means of in this case. Translations can not be literal but it would be literally, "recipes of vegetables" or vegetable recipes.

April 22, 2014


Is Est-ce supposed to sound like that? My French teacher pronounces it individually (est and ce), but I don't know if it is due to his Canadian upbringing or a Duolingo audio technicality.

May 1, 2014


what does as mean in French?

July 26, 2014
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