Ce système produit de la discrimination dans la mesure où il a beaucoup de biais.

Questions & Answers about Ce système produit de la discrimination dans la mesure où il a beaucoup de biais.

Why does dans la mesure où take the indicative verb a instead of the subjunctive?
Even though many complex conjunctions in French trigger the subjunctive, dans la mesure où expresses a concrete reality or a logical extent ('insofar as' or 'since'). Because it states a fact rather than a doubt, possibility, or subjective feeling, it is always followed by the indicative.
Why do we say produit de la discrimination when English just says 'produces discrimination'?
In French, abstract nouns used in an uncountable sense require a partitive article (du, de la, de l') when they are the direct object of a verb. Since the system produces an unquantifiable amount of discrimination, you must use de la before the feminine noun discrimination.
Why is it beaucoup de biais rather than beaucoup des biais?
This is a classic rule to remember: adverbs of quantity like beaucoup, peu, or trop are followed by a simple de (or d'), without the definite article. Using beaucoup des here would translate to 'a lot of the biases' (referring to a specific, previously defined group of biases) rather than 'a lot of biases' in general.
How can you tell if biais is plural in this sentence?
The context of beaucoup de ('a lot of') tells us it is plural here. As a noun, un biais ends in an 's' even in the singular, making it an invariable noun. Its singular and plural forms look and sound exactly the same.

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