Learn French: Leurs voisins ont des vaches et des moutons. - Their neighbors have cows and sheep.

Leurs voisins ont des vaches et des moutons.

Their neighbors have cows and sheep.

Breakdown of Leurs voisins ont des vaches et des moutons.

and

des

some (plural indefinite)

Questions & Answers about Leurs voisins ont des vaches et des moutons.

Since the lesson is about the pronoun en, how would I use it to say 'Their neighbors have some'?

To replace a quantity introduced by des (like des vaches et des moutons), you use the pronoun en. It goes right before the conjugated verb, so 'Their neighbors have some' becomes Leurs voisins en ont.

Why is there a des before both animals, when in English we just say 'cows and sheep'?

In French, you generally cannot skip the article before a noun. Because the cows and sheep are plural and non-specific here, you must use the plural indefinite article des before each of them, even though we leave it out in English.

Why is it Leurs with an 's' instead of Leur?

Possessive adjectives in French agree with the thing being owned, not the owner. Since voisins (neighbors) is plural, you must use the plural form Leurs. If they only had one neighbor, it would be Leur voisin, even if it belongs to multiple people.

The English translation says 'sheep'. How does French handle the plural of mouton?

Unlike English, which uses the same word for one sheep or a flock of sheep, French makes mouton plural in the normal way by adding an -s at the end to make moutons. Remember that this final -s is silent!