In a nutshell | Not without difficulty

The French language is evolving at breakneck speed. Each week, our language advisor dissects the words and expressions that make the headlines or give us trouble.

Posted yesterday at 7:00 p.m.

The noun following the preposition without can be written sometimes in the singular, sometimes in the plural. Logic often determines agreement. We write thus he went out without a coat and without gloves, because we usually wear a pair of gloves. And we write she is wearing a sleeveless dressbecause the garment usually has two.

“If the name that follows without designates an abstract reality or a concrete reality that cannot be counted, it generally remains in the singular. We also have the singular when the name, designating in the context a concrete accounting reality, necessarily refers to a single element ”, summarizes the Quebec Office of the French language.

We always write in the singular certain expressions like without faith or law Where without fanfarein the same way no comment, without delay, without difficulty, without a doubt, effortlessly, regardless, without encumbers, without regret, etc. We write in the plural bluntly and without news.

If you hesitate, you will most often find the answer to your question in a reference book; however, we must know that they will not always say the same thing (we will choose according to our preference, then). We find the unemployed in the Laroussebut the unemployed in the Robert.

It is customary to write faultless dictationwith the word faults in the plural, because they can be counted. If we prefer the singular, we can write instead without any fault. The phrase without fail meaning certainly, without missing itis always invariable. It must be done today without fail. But we will write a without fail.

We can write the homeless Where the homelessbut at The Press, we tend towards invariability. We also write Homeless to refer to people in an irregular situation, who generally lack more than one identity document. As for the name without purposethis synonym ofimbecileit is most often considered invariable and is used in the singular. They are without purpose. But the Robert writes without intentions.

We can also be surprised to read a woman or a couple without childrenwith the mark of the plural, but it is not at fault.

Mail

In the countryside or in the countryside?

Shouldn’t we say live in the countryside, rather than in the countryside?

Answer

It is indeed the preposition to which are used, according to the reference works, when it is a question of the “geographical, social, human environment, defined by agricultural activity, livestock farming… outside urban areas” and, by extension, of the “non-urban environment” urbanized”. To live in the countryside, spend your holidays in the countryside, visit his grandparents who live in the countryside. Stay in the countryside.

But we say well open country, to mean “uncovered, without protection; in a place without dwellings, therefore without resources”. Car breakdown in open country. The use of the preposition in in this expression may cause confusion.

In campaign is used in a military context, first. To campaignit is “to put oneself on a war footing, to begin an operation”. The troops are on the field. In a civil context, for example, we say that politicians are on the campaign trail.

Finally, formulations with the preposition in are not faulty in themselves either. Getaway in the Japanese countryside.


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