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I am self-studying French using the Contacts book by Valette.

I came across the following expressions: avoir de bons amis and faire de grands progrès. I am confused why the book uses "de" in both cases since the noun that follows is plural.

Shouldn't it be avoir des bons amis (with des being the plural of un/une) and faire des grands progrès (with des being the partitive article)?

I would appreciate some clarifications. Thanks!

secondrate
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1 Answers1

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In these two examples bons amis and grand progrès are treated as mass nouns

des bons amis = multiple, specific, good friends, possible to list.

de bons amis = multiple good friends, in general.

zogwarg
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