Les chaussures dans la vitrine sont en promotion.

to be

Breakdown of Les chaussures dans la vitrine sont en promotion.

• dans: in
• la chaussure: the shoe
• en promotion: on sale

Questions & Answers about Les chaussures dans la vitrine sont en promotion.

Why does the sentence start with Les instead of Des?

Les means the, while des means some.

In Les chaussures dans la vitrine, the speaker is referring to a specific set of shoes: the shoes in the display window. The phrase dans la vitrine identifies which shoes we mean, so French naturally uses les.

If you said Des chaussures dans la vitrine sont en promotion, it would sound more like Some shoes in the window are on sale, which is possible, but less definite.

Why is it chaussures with an -s?

Because chaussures is plural: it means shoes.

French nouns usually add -s in the plural:

• la chaussure = the shoe
• les chaussures = the shoes

Even though the final -s is usually not pronounced, it still matters in writing and for grammar agreement.

Why is it sont and not est?