Plurals in singular context.

Can someone please explain to me why, in French, some nouns are written in the plural mode, when they are used in a singular context ? The following examples contain three such nouns that have recently come to my attention;

Les Francais, ils partent en vacances. The English, they go on holiday.

Les Francais, ils vont aux funérailles de..... The English, they attend the funeral of.....

Les Francais, ils vont aux toilettes. The English, they go to the toilet.

In the above cases the nouns are clearly used in a singular sense, but are listed in the dictionary as feminine plural nouns (with no singular option) and this fact is supported by the agreement of the preposition + article compounds

Is there some logic behind this, or is it just another case of "parce que"?

Merci.

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on July 31, 2010 at 2:16am

It's a case of "parce que" in the sense that speakers readily use e.g. mes vacances to refer to a single period of holiday because that's what the expression they're used to, logical or not, just as e.g. in English, I went on my holidays could refer to a single trip, or those trousers could refer to a single item of clothing.

Historically, there is often some logic in the development of these words. For example, les toilettes was probably originally a short form of something like les articles de toilette, though that's not how people would nowadays envisage the concept, I don't think.

Incidentally, it's not always so clear cut as to whether these concepts actually do represent an inherently singular or plural thing. If I say he's wearing blue underpants, do you imagine the person wearing more than one garment, and does it conjur up something different to he's wearing a pair of blue underpants? If I say they attended the funeral proceedings, to what extent do we imagine something inherently "plural" rather than "singular"?

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Permalink Reply by James H Smith on July 31, 2010 at 9:41am

Thanks Neil

When I can have a question explained to me as clearly as you do, and I can see there is "no more to be learned"; I am quite happy to accept "parce que" and then "move on".

Merci beaucoup.