---
title: Plurals: les, des and silent s — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics
description: «Plurals: les, des and silent s», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: You hear the plural in the little word in front instead: le chat sounds "luh SHA", les chats sounds "lay SHA", and des chats, "day SHA", mea
---

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# Plurals: les, des and silent s

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Lesson 26 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 14 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/).

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- [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/1/) — You hear the plural in the little word in front instead: le chat sounds "luh SHA", les chats sounds "lay SHA", and des chats, "day SHA", means "some cats".
- [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/2/) — Picture a French farm: un cheval in the field becomes des chevaux, un oiseau on the roof becomes des oiseaux, and you cannot see un œil but deux yeux.
- [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/3/) — The silent s wakes up before a vowel and is said as z, so les enfants sounds "lay-zahn-FAHN" - a little bridge between the two words.
- [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/4/) — When the noun goes plural, everything travelling with it goes plural too: les yeux bleus, les chevaux sont dans le champ.
- [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/5/) — The plural s is usually silent but must be written: le chat ("luh SHA"), les chats ("lay SHA").
- [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/7/) — French keeps des where English often says nothing.
- [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/8/) — Words ending in -eau and -eu usually add x, not s: des gâteaux, des bateaux, des oiseaux, des jeux.
- [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/9/) — Words ending in -al usually change to -aux: un animal, des animaux; un cheval, des chevaux; un journal, des journaux.
- [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/10/) — Nouns already ending in s, x or z do not change: le nez, les nez; la souris, les souris; le prix, les prix.
- [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/11/) — Before a vowel the silent s of les and des is said as z: les enfants ("lay-zahn-FAHN"), des oranges.
- [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/12/) — An adjective goes plural with its noun: les yeux bleus, les chats noirs.
- [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/13/) — Œil (eye) has a completely different plural: un œil, deux yeux, like mouse and mice in English.
- [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/14/) — A plural noun takes a plural verb: le cheval est, but les chevaux sont.
- [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/26-plurals-les-des-and-silent-s/15/) — After pas, des becomes de: J'ai des bonbons, but Je n'ai pas de bonbons.

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- ← previous: [Le, la, un, une: every word is a boy or a girl](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/25-le-la-un-une-every-word-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/)
- next →: [Adjectives: after the noun, and agreeing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/27-adjectives-after-the-noun-and-agreeing/)
- ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)