#the s is not pronounced. Il boit du café tous les jours. Ils vont en France tous les ans. Elle se lève à six heures tous les matins.

[coquelicoq]

good news! i am currently at my parents' house and one of the ways my father and i bond is me asking him questions about french. re: si, this was taught to me, but i did also double-check it with him, the actual native french speaker, and he confirmed it as well. you're not crazy, it is indeed a thing. re: tous, the s is pronounced when it's standing in for a noun phrase. e.g. tous (silent s) les élèves sont assemblés? oui, ils sont touS (s pronounced) là.

this is very good news indeed!! thank you for asking your dad my french questions and reporting back!

i'm feeling very relieved about si. phew. weight off my shoulders there. maybe they just don't teach americans about it because spanish is more common here and they're worried it might confuse us? "si means yes, but only if you are answering no to a negative question? so does it mean yes or no?? preposterous!" that's my working theory. (i'm mostly joking.)

the tous shortcut i have come up with is: when tous occurs in the construction tous les [plural noun], the s is silent, and otherwise, it's pronounced. which i think is more or less what you're saying? what do we think about that? yes? no? yes and no?

#you and your dad: my heroes #also i love that this is how you guys bond. man i WISH my family was this nerdy #the way my textbook explains tous is #When the pronoun tout is used in the plural #referring to people or things #the final s is pronounced. Ils sont tous ici. Elle les achète tous. Nous tous! #Whereas if tous is an adjective #the s is not pronounced. Il boit du café tous les jours. Ils vont en France tous les ans. Elle se lève à six heures tous les matins. #but i don't...really understand what any of that means. isn't tous kind of an adjective in the first group of examples? #is it referring to the noun? or is it modifying it? it's modifying a pronoun as far as i can tell #and why are all the tous phrases in the second group of examples units of time? #is that just a coincidence? tous les élèves is not a unit of time so i think it is a coincidence #but it seems weird because the 'pronounce the s' part specifies 'referring to people or things' #and all the examples under 'don't pronounce the s' aren't people or (concrete) things #luckily you gave me an example with tous les [people] so that helps a lot thank you #(unit of time isn't really the correct term but idk what to call it. a morning isn't really a unit) #(but hopefully you know what i mean) #french #asks #not anon