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J'ai acheté des pêches au marché.

J'ai acheté des pêches au marché.
I bought peaches at the market.
From Lesson 250:Fruit and vegetables·French

Breakdown of J'ai acheté des pêches au marché.

acheter
to buy
le marché
the market
la pêche
the peach

Questions & Answers about J'ai acheté des pêches au marché.

Why is there a des before pêches when the English translation just says peaches?
In English, we often drop the article when talking about an unspecified quantity of plural things (like "peaches"). In French, however, you cannot have a "naked" noun. You must use the plural indefinite article des (which translates to "some") because you bought an unspecified number of them.
Since pêches is feminine plural, shouldn't acheté have an extra -es at the end?
No, because the sentence uses the auxiliary verb avoir. In the passé composé, past participles like acheté only change to match the direct object if that object comes before the verb. Since des pêches comes after the verb here, acheté stays exactly as it is. If you changed the sentence to "The peaches that I bought," it would become Les pêches que j'ai achetées.
Why do we use au instead of dans le for "at the market"?
au is the required contraction of the preposition à and the masculine article le. When talking about attending or being at a public place or event (like a market, school, or supermarket), French typically uses à (at/to) rather than dans (physically inside of).

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