Language/French/Grammar/Nouns-which-exist-only-in-plural-form

French Grammar - Nouns that only exist in the plural

Some nouns in French do not have a singular form, they only exist in the plural form.

Here are they:

French		English
Nom	Exemple	Noun	Example
des affres (f)	Les affres du désespoir	agonies	The pangs of despair
aux alentours (m)	aux alentours de la maison	around	around the house
des annales (f)	ceci restera gravé dans les annales	annals	this will remain engraved in the annals
des archives (f)	Je suis le responsable des archives	archives	I am the archives manager
des armoiries (f)	des armoires pleines à craquer	(coat of) arms	cupboards packed to the brim
des arrérages (m)	toucher les arrérages	arrears	touch the arrears
des arrhes (f)	récupérer les arrhes	a deposit	recover the deposit
des bestiaux (m)	de nombreux bestiaux	animals	many cattle
des condoléances (f)	veuillez recevoir nos condoléances	condolences	please accept our condolences
des ébats (m)	des ébats amoureux	frolicking	lovemaking
des entrailles (f)	dans les entrailles de la terre	entrails	in the bowels of the earth
des environs (m)	aux environs de 10h	surroundings	around 10 a.m.
des fiançailles (f)	viendrez vous à nos fiançailles?	engagement	will you come to our engagement?
des fringues (f) (colloquial)	je me suis acheté des fringues	clothes	I bought myself some clothes
des frusques (f) (colloquial, old language)	un entassement de vieilles frusques	clothes	a pile of old clothes
des funérailles (f)	viendrez vou aux funérailles?	funeral	will you come to the funeral?
des gens	des gens ordinaires	people	ordinary people
des honoraires (m)	voici mles honoraires	fees	here are the fees
des intempéries (f)	nous avons subi des intempéries	bad weather	we suffered bad weather
des moeurs (f)	ils ont de drôles de mœurs	customs	they have funny customs
des obsèques (f)	viendrez vous aux obsèques ?	funeral	will you come to the funeral?
des vêpres (f), poetic language	les vêpres ont été célébrées l'après-midi	vespers	vespers were celebrated in the afternoon
des victuailles (f)	vous reste t il des victuailles	victuals	do you have any food left

Plural of Nouns (all lessons)

Table of Contents

• Regular plurals
• Plurals of nouns ending in -s, -x, -z
• Plurals of nouns ending in -eu, -au, -eau
• Plurals of nouns ending in –ou
• Plurals of nouns ending in –al
• Irregular plurals for nouns ending in –ail
• Nouns which exist only in plural form
• Nouns with irregular plurals
• The plural of compound nouns
• Number differences between French and English nouns

VIDEO SUMMARY: French Plural of Nouns - How To Make A Noun Plural in French - French Grammar Course

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds