Learn French: Les canards et les chevaux sont des animaux.

Les canards et les chevaux sont des animaux.

Ducks and horses are animals.

Breakdown of Les canards et les chevaux sont des animaux.

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Questions & Answers about Les canards et les chevaux sont des animaux.

Why is it chevaux and not chevals?

In French, most nouns ending in -al change to -aux in the plural. Since the singular word for horse is cheval, the plural becomes chevaux.

Does animaux follow the same rule as chevaux?

Yes! The singular word is animal. Because it ends in -al, it changes to -aux in the plural, making it animaux.

Why does canards just get an s when the other nouns end in -aux?

The singular word is canard. Because it does not end in -al (or another irregular ending like -au), it just follows the regular French rule of adding an s to make it plural.

Why do we say des animaux instead of les animaux at the end of the sentence?

In English, we just say they are animals with no article, but French almost always requires an article before a noun. Here, we use the indefinite plural article des because ducks and horses belong to the category of animals, but they are not all the animals in the world.