Learn French: J'ajoute beaucoup de carottes et un peu de sel. - I add a lot of carrots and a little salt.

J'ajoute beaucoup de carottes et un peu de sel.

I add a lot of carrots and a little salt.

Breakdown of J'ajoute beaucoup de carottes et un peu de sel.

Questions & Answers about J'ajoute beaucoup de carottes et un peu de sel.

Why is it beaucoup de carottes and not beaucoup des carottes?

When using expressions of quantity like beaucoup de (a lot of) and un peu de (a little bit of), the word de never changes to match the noun. Even though carottes is plural, you must use plain de instead of the plural des.

Would I normally use du for salt? Why is it just de here?

Yes, if you were just saying "I add some salt," you would say J'ajoute du sel. But just like with the carrots, the quantity expression un peu de locks the word de in place. Directly after these quantity phrases, you drop words like du, de la, or des.

Why is it J'ajoute instead of Je ajoute?

The pronoun je (I) drops its e and combines with the next word if that word starts with a vowel or a silent 'h'. Because the verb ajoute (add) starts with an 'a', je becomes j' to make pronunciation smoother.

Since carottes is plural, do I pronounce the s at the end?

No, the s at the end of regular plural nouns in French is almost always silent. Spoken out loud, carotte and carottes sound exactly the same. You only know it's plural from the context of the sentence!