Learn French: On trouve aussi de la mousse sous le chêne ; j'y vais pour ramasser des champignons. - We also find moss under the oak; I go there to gather mushrooms.

On trouve aussi de la mousse sous le chêne ; j'y vais pour ramasser des champignons.

We also find moss under the oak; I go there to gather mushrooms.

Breakdown of On trouve aussi de la mousse sous le chêne ; j'y vais pour ramasser des champignons.

one / we (informal)

des

some (plural indefinite)

aussi

also / too

Questions & Answers about On trouve aussi de la mousse sous le chêne ; j'y vais pour ramasser des champignons.

If I wanted to add to this sentence and say 'I am going to gather mushrooms, the ones that are under the oak', how would I use this lesson's grammar?

You would use the masculine plural demonstrative pronoun ceux (the ones) because champignons is masculine plural, followed by the relative pronoun qui (that / which): j'y vais pour ramasser des champignons, ceux qui sont sous le chêne.

What does the y refer to in j'y vais, and why is it placed before the verb?

The pronoun y means 'there' and replaces a place introduced by a preposition. Here, it refers back to the location just mentioned: sous le chêne (under the oak). In French, object and place pronouns like y must go directly before the conjugated verb, giving us j'y vais instead of putting it at the end like in English.

Why does the sentence use de la before mousse but des before champignons?

These are partitive articles used to express an unspecified quantity, similar to saying 'some' in English. We use de la because mousse is an uncountable feminine noun. We use des because champignons is a plural noun.

Why is ramasser left in its infinitive (unconjugated) form here?