Answers
Sep 05, 2012 - 02:07 AM
I'm on F1, L20, and my understanding is that "des" is a contraction of "de" + "les" as in "Je suis des etats-unis". The reason I think you would say "beaucoup DE choses" rather than "beaucoup DES choses", is because one contraction should only mean one thing. Plus, it's unnecessary seeing as you have already specified that it's plural by saying (many/less/more things) "BEAUCOUP/MOINS/PLUS de choses". Then again, I'm far from having a strong grasp of French.
Sep 05, 2012 - 02:34 PM
In French anytime that you use beaucoup, plus, trop, or moins etc. you use "de". If you left beaucoup out of the phrase then it would be "des choses".
Sep 06, 2012 - 05:46 PM
Here's an explanation from the French section of about.com: http://french.about.com/od/mistakes/a... Beaucoup des is not always wrong - just most of the time. Like other adverbs of quantity, beaucoup is nearly always followed by de, with no article. J'ai beaucoup de temps. - I have a lot of time. Tu as beaucoup d'amis. - You have many friends. C'est un détail de peu d'importance. - It's a minor detail, a detail of little importance. In the above examples, the nouns are unspecific - they refer to time, friends, and importance in general. The only time beaucoup de and the other adverbs of quantity can be followed by a definite article is when they are referring to something specific, as in these examples: J'ai acheté une chemise dont beaucoup des boutons s'étaient détachés. - I bought a shirt that a lot of the buttons had come off of. (I'm talking about the specific buttons on this particular shirt) Beaucoup des idées de Jean-Luc sont intéressantes. - A lot of Jean-Luc's ideas are interesting. (I'm not referring to ideas in general, but rather the specific ideas that Jean-Luc has) In most cases, if you can translate the French as "a lot of the" + noun or "a lot of ___'s" + noun, you use the definite article. Otherwise, if you only say "a lot of" + noun in English, just use de. (There are undoubtedly exceptions to this rule, but it should help you in most cases.)
Sep 06, 2012 - 06:07 PM
I was not able to add "hard returns" in my reply above, so everything is run together. I'm sorry about that. If you're interested in reading the comment, it would probably be easier to simply go to the provided link and read the site's article all nicely formatted :).
Sep 07, 2012 - 04:39 AM
This confused me at first; the way I remember it is this way: "Des choses" means "(some) of the things" You wouldn't say "(some) of things." "Beaucoup de choses" means "a lot of things." You wouldn't say "a lot of the things" (ordinarily). So, in this case, it helps to consider the literal translations, at least for me.