Hi
I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for why I see both ‘pattes arrière/arrières’ and ‘pattes avant/avants’ online. Does it have to do with specificity?
I look forward to your feedback.
Ses pattes arrière(arrières?) sont beaucoup plus grandes que ses pattes avant/avants??).
These are invariable adjectives: les pneus arrière, les pneus avant.
Thank you DPRK, but can you tell me why I see the variations online ending in "-s’ as opposed the common ones that don’t end in ‘s’ the plural?
Possible spelling mistake? Could you quote an example of such a usage?
“Avants” could also refer to rugby or football positions. OTOH, the plural of “avant-garde” is “avant-gardes”.
It’s a common “erreur d’orthographe” (spelling/writing mistake) I’d wager. French is my second language, and it feels to me like “arrière” and “avant” should take an s to conjugate with the plural “pattes”, but it doesn’t because as **DPRK **mentioned, they’re invariable adjectives. You would conjugate most adjectives in that situation (for example, “une patte rouge/des pattes rouges”).
En englais, por favor? I haven’t had French since 1987 and I’m a bit rusty.
Front paws and back paws
Thanks you DPRK. Thank you all.
arrière and avant can be:
adverbs or invariable adjectives as in pneus arrière, pneus avant
or adjectives as in arrières pensées (back thinking), arrières grands-parents (great grand parents)
nouns, as in l’arrière de la voiture (the back of the car), usually in the singular since things generally have one arrière. I know of only one case when les arrières is used; it then means the backs (of the troops, of the players).
So it all depends on usage. It’s a really peculiar case in the French language, and I understand the hesitations of non-francophones.
Ah. Thank you.