Learn French: Tu dois acheter des pédales, n'importe lesquelles. - You have to buy some pedals, any of them.

Tu dois acheter des pédales, n'importe lesquelles.

You have to buy some pedals, any of them.

Breakdown of Tu dois acheter des pédales, n'importe lesquelles.

you (informal singular)

des

some (plural indefinite)

Questions & Answers about Tu dois acheter des pédales, n'importe lesquelles.

Why use n'importe lesquelles here instead of just n'importe quoi?

N'importe quoi means "anything" in a broad, general sense. Here, you are referring to a specific category of things (pedals). To say "any of them" or "no matter which ones," you use n'importe plus the pronoun lequel. Since une pédale is feminine, we use the feminine plural form lesquelles.

Could I say Tu dois acheter n'importe quelles pédales instead?

Yes, you can. In that case, n'importe quelles acts as an adjective placed directly in front of the noun. The structure in our sentence uses a pronoun instead, which sounds a bit like an afterthought or a clarification: "You have to buy some pedals, any of them will do."

Where does the phrase n'importe actually come from?

It comes from the verb importer (to matter, to be important) used with the negative particle ne. So n'importe literally translates to "it does not matter." Added to lesquelles (which ones), the whole phrase literally means "it doesn't matter which ones."

Why do we use des pédales rather than les pédales?