Learn French: Voici les chocolats. Quelques-uns ont du caramel. - Here are the chocolates. A few of them have caramel.

Quelques is an adjective meaning "a few" or "some," so it always needs a noun right after it (like quelques chocolats). Because we are dropping the noun to avoid repeating it, we use the pronoun quelques-uns ("a few of them").

How do we know to use quelques-uns rather than quelques-unes?

The pronoun must match the gender of the noun it replaces. Here, it refers back to les chocolats. Since chocolat is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form quelques-uns. If we were talking about les tartes (the tarts, feminine), we would say quelques-unes.

How do I pronounce quelques-uns ont? Are there liaisons?

Yes, there are two important liaisons here! The 's' at the end of quelques connects to uns with a "z" sound. Then, the 's' at the end of uns connects to the vowel in ont, also making a "z" sound. So it sounds like "quelque-Z-un-Z-ont".

Why is it du caramel and not just caramel?