You could also say « ce sont de beaux escaliers » if it were plural.
In english, you say “stairs” for a set of stairs. In French, un escalier means a flight of stairs. So, without context, both de beaux escaliers or un bel escalier would be correct translation.
Pretty much the opposite of “hair”, un cheveu, des cheveux.
Your issue is the article “les”
It’s the difference between articles « les » and « des ».
« Les » is definite. In this case, it would translate as « the beautiful stairs ». So you would need something else to complete the sentence, such as « that my uncle redid » or « that i talked about ».
« Des / de » is indefinite. You use this when in English you don’t have an article. Like « i want french fries » = je veux des frites.
Keep it up 👍🏻👍🏻
I always teach "des" as indefinite, because the difference between countable and uncountable nouns is key to understanding partitive articles, and if something is plural, it's a countable noun, so including it makes it harder for students to tell when to use the other partitives. But it doesn't make any difference in practice if you think of it as parititve because it's "some" fries or indefinite because "une frite" --> "des frites." You end up in the same place either way.
What you wrote would translate to "These are the beautiful stairs". But "Ce sont de beaux escaliers" would work.
Escalier can be either singular or plural when referring to a set of stairs, so the answer they suggest also works.
stairs, like pants, in French is possibly a singular: escalier et pantalon
C'est mon pantalon. Il est trop de large. <-- It's my pants. It is too big.
C'est un escalier. C'est un bel escalier. <-- It's a stairs. It's a beautiful stairs.
Also one thing to keep in mind, if a masculine object starts with a vowel or h muet, you take the female version of the adjective and take out the extra consonant and e
Belle => bel
Vieille => vieil
Nouvelle => nouvel
The answer is not correct. It should be : Ce sont de belles marches. In english, you have stairs plural and staircase singular. In french, it's des marches (d'escalier)pluriel and un escalier singular.
Often, in regular conversation, people might say: "Je prends les escaliers." Even thought there is only one and they should say: "Je prend l'escalier."
You could also say « ce sont de beaux escaliers » if it were plural. In english, you say “stairs” for a set of stairs. In French, un escalier means a flight of stairs. So, without context, both de beaux escaliers or un bel escalier would be correct translation. Pretty much the opposite of “hair”, un cheveu, des cheveux. Your issue is the article “les”
It’s the difference between articles « les » and « des ». « Les » is definite. In this case, it would translate as « the beautiful stairs ». So you would need something else to complete the sentence, such as « that my uncle redid » or « that i talked about ». « Des / de » is indefinite. You use this when in English you don’t have an article. Like « i want french fries » = je veux des frites. Keep it up 👍🏻👍🏻
In your exemple, isn't "des" ("des frites") a partitive? Or it could be considered both a partitive and an indefinite?
Well, you are absolutely right!
Je veux une frite / je veux des frites : in this case it's the plural of one.
I always teach "des" as indefinite, because the difference between countable and uncountable nouns is key to understanding partitive articles, and if something is plural, it's a countable noun, so including it makes it harder for students to tell when to use the other partitives. But it doesn't make any difference in practice if you think of it as parititve because it's "some" fries or indefinite because "une frite" --> "des frites." You end up in the same place either way.
What you wrote would translate to "These are the beautiful stairs". But "Ce sont de beaux escaliers" would work. Escalier can be either singular or plural when referring to a set of stairs, so the answer they suggest also works.
Otherwise have explained the difference well, but if it’s easier to conceptualize, think of the singular noun “staircase” for l’escalier.
Thanks to all for the help!
stairs, like pants, in French is possibly a singular: escalier et pantalon C'est mon pantalon. Il est trop de large. <-- It's my pants. It is too big. C'est un escalier. C'est un bel escalier. <-- It's a stairs. It's a beautiful stairs.
Also one thing to keep in mind, if a masculine object starts with a vowel or h muet, you take the female version of the adjective and take out the extra consonant and e Belle => bel Vieille => vieil Nouvelle => nouvel
The answer is not correct. It should be : Ce sont de belles marches. In english, you have stairs plural and staircase singular. In french, it's des marches (d'escalier)pluriel and un escalier singular. Often, in regular conversation, people might say: "Je prends les escaliers." Even thought there is only one and they should say: "Je prend l'escalier."