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French

Secondary 3 • October 18, 2024

I saw a sentence as this:

Dans le plateau classique, vous avez seulement des coquillages : des huîtres, des moules ...
Dans le plateau mélangé, vous avez aussi des crustacés : des langoustines, du crabe, des crevettes ...

All the seafoods are “des+XXXs”, but crab is “du crab”.
Whether does it mean only the crab is an uncountable noun?

Answer (1)

Alloprof Answer

October 18, 2024

Hi there! :) Welcome to the Help Zone!
You are right! «Du» is used with an uncountable nouns, whereas «des» is used with countable nouns. Goodjob! :D

We could use des with crabes, but it depends of the context.
ex : J'ai vu des crabes se cacher dans le sable.
Here, it means that the subject saw multiple whole crabs (animal).

When we refer to crab as seafood, we usually consider it uncountable, since we usually don't eat a whole crab. We eat some crab. Same thing with homard (lobster) or other meats (du boeuf, du poulet, etc.)! :)

Hope that helps! :D
Sarah G