Le dégât des eaux vient, par exemple, de la canalisation.

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Breakdown of Le dégât des eaux vient, par exemple, de la canalisation.

• venir: to come
• le dégât des eaux: the water damage
• la canalisation: the fixed water line

Questions & Answers about Le dégât des eaux vient, par exemple, de la canalisation.

Why is it le dégât des eaux and not just un dégât d’eau?

Le dégât des eaux is a very common fixed expression in French, especially in everyday life, housing, and insurance. It means water damage in the general sense.

A few useful points:

• dégât = damage
• des eaux is part of the established phrase
• French often uses this exact expression as a set term, rather than building it word-for-word from English

So even though English says water damage, French very often says dégât des eaux.

You may also see un dégât des eaux when talking about a case of water damage:

• J’ai eu un dégât des eaux. = I had water damage / I had a leak-related damage problem.

Why is it des eaux with eaux in the plural?

Here, des means de + les, so literally it is something like damage of the waters. That sounds odd in English, but it is normal French in this fixed expression.

Why plural?

• In many French expressions, eaux is used in a broad or general sense
• In dégât des eaux, the plural is idiomatic: it is simply the standard form of the expression

So this is not something to translate literally word for word. The best approach is to learn dégât des eaux as one chunk meaning water damage.

What does mean here? Does it literally mean ?