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| Arteum | Wednesday 30th of March 2005 01:16:19 AM |
| French Irregular Plurals - Yesterday I and my Canadian friend were practicing French on the messenger and I realized that French plurals were not all that simple.
For example, what is the plural of the word "gâteau". It is "gâteaux", right? But what is the plural of "pneu"? It is "pneus"! It turned out, there are four exceptions: Sarrau = sarraus Landau = landaus Bleu = bleus Pneu = pneus All other words ending with -au or -eu have plurals ending with -aux and -eux. But this is not all. What is the plural of "clou"? It is "clous". But the plural of "chou" is "choux"! There are seven exceptions of the plurals of the words ending in -ou. Normally, all such words have plurals ending in -ous, but these seven exceptions take irregular plurals -oux: Bijou = bijoux Caillou = cailloux Chou = choux Genou = genoux Hibou = hiboux Joujou = joujoux Pou = poux So, French is not as regular as I thought before! | |
| Mery | Wednesday 30th of March 2005 04:21:03 AM |
| - Hi Arteum,
Very good idea to post some irregular plurals in the forum, I've never thought of creating a thread with such plurals although I know that French learners often encounter problems when they have to use them. It's the same for some native speakers who can't always determine the right plural of a noun. If you'd have asked me what's the plural of the word 'landau', I think I'd have hesitated and probably responded 'landaux'lol :$ I guess it wouldn't be a problem if I made such as mistake, I never have to write the word 'landau', so my mistake can be forgiven. Other mistakes are more shocking. The other day I was in a bookshop and I heard someone who said: je voudrais deux journals svp!!! :| I was so surprised to hear such a mistake. The examples you gave are excellent, but I think you should also have included words like journal, cheval, carnaval etc. Usually the plural of those nouns is -aux. So, un journal => des journaux un bocal => des bocaux un cheval => des chevaux But, be careful to the exceptions!!! un carnaval => des carnavals un festival => des festivals un chacal => des chacals etc. I'm glad you mentioned bijou, caillou, chou, genou, hibou, joujou et pou. There's a sentence to remember them. I think it's something like: Mon chou, mon bijou, viens faire joujou sur mes genoux, on lancera des cailloux à ce vieil hibou plein de poux. :D lol (I don't remember the exact sentence, I should ask around) In my sentence 'chou' doesn't mean a cabbage, it's just a word like you'd say 'honey, darling'etc lol | |
| Ulven | Wednesday 30th of March 2005 11:20:44 AM |
| - L'individuel dans cette librarie (?book-shop? magasin de livres, ou librarie?) peut-être était moi :s.
Des questions de moi; Is the plural of [b]pays[/b] (nation/country) the same as the singular? Is the masculine plural of [b]français[/b] the same as the singular? Or do you use the same plural as the feminine 'fraçaises'? "les hommes Français" (the French men) is how I'd write say it. Am I wrong? And, on nationality, I'd like to know what a South African is called. Quelqu'un du Sud d'Afrique est un... (Sud Africain? :s). Merci. | |
| Mery | Thursday 31st of March 2005 05:46:06 AM |
| - Haha, no Ulven lol. Actually the person I was talking about was my mum :/ I was so embarassed when she said 'deux journals' lol. I think she has a real problem with plural nouns. The other day she was talking to the dog and told her: prends tes os (she mispronounced 'os'). [b]Os[/b] is a word which has two different pronounciations:
[i]singular:[/i] un os (you can hear the 's' at the end of the word, un os = a bone) [i]plural:[/i] des os (the 's' isn't pronounced, so you have to say: des Z o) Some words ending in 's' don't have two different pronunciations, e.g. un pays = des pays (the plural = the singular) To answer your other questions: - un Français = des Français (pas des hommes français !!!) - a bookshop = une librairie (in a 'librairie' you can also find newspapers, cigarettes etc.) - a South African = un Sud-Africain, very simply ;) - un individuel*** = un individu :) | |
| Leto_Atreides | Friday 01st of April 2005 02:00:19 PM |
| - The problem with the exceptions is that I can remember how they are in plural but I don't know what they mean:P
Could you be kind and post the explanations? [quote][i]Originally posted by Arteum[/i] Yesterday I and my Canadian friend were practicing French on the messenger and I realized that French plurals were not all that simple. For example, what is the plural of the word "gâteau". It is "gâteaux", right? But what is the plural of "pneu"? It is "pneus"! It turned out, there are four exceptions: Sarrau = sarraus Landau = landaus Bleu = bleus Pneu = pneus All other words ending with -au or -eu have plurals ending with -aux and -eux. But this is not all. What is the plural of "clou"? It is "clous". But the plural of "chou" is "choux"! There are seven exceptions of the plurals of the words ending in -ou. Normally, all such words have plurals ending in -ous, but these seven exceptions take irregular plurals -oux: Bijou = bijoux Caillou = cailloux Chou = choux Genou = genoux Hibou = hiboux Joujou = joujoux Pou = poux So, French is not as regular as I thought before! [/quote] | |
| Ulven | Monday 04th of April 2005 04:53:33 PM |
| - My example of masculine plural was not a good one. Because as pointed out, French men is simply ---> "les français", not "les hommes français".:D ha ha
But, what if it is a masculine noun. eg. "le lapin français" (the French rabbit)---> "les lapins français" (French rabbits). Is that right? I'm not supposed to write "les lapins français[b]es[/b]", am I? Does [b]français[/b] act as the masculine plural aswell as its singular? | |
| Mery | Tuesday 05th of April 2005 08:54:53 PM |
| - Oui Ulven... :) le lapin français (sg.) = les lapins français (plur.), so 'français' remains 'français'
BUT la fleur française = les fleurs français[b]e[/b]s because fleur is a feminine noun | |
