Des choses sont sur des chaises.

Questions & Answers about Des choses sont sur des chaises.

In English we can just say "Things are on chairs." Why does French add des?
In French, nouns almost always need a little word in front of them, like an article. Because choses and chaises are plural, we use the plural article des. You cannot just leave it out like we do in English.
Does des always mean "some"?
Yes, it is the plural of un or une, meaning "some". However, while English speakers often drop the word "some" and just say "Things are on chairs", you must always keep des in French to show the noun is plural.
Should I pronounce the s at the end of choses and chaises?
No, the plural s added to regular nouns is completely silent. When speaking French, you can only tell these words are plural because you hear des before them instead of une.
Why do we use sont in this sentence?
sont is the "they" form of the verb être (to be). Because des choses (some things) is a plural subject, it acts just like "they", so we must use sont.

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