les vs des

Question

In the sentence: Moi qui mangeais que des plats à emporter, why is it correct to use des vs les? My reasoning is that we are talking generally...therefore I used les.

Accepted Answer

Hi Ann,
My rationale as to why des is correct here is that using les, if not not referring to previously specified entities, would refer to the universe of take-away meals, i.e.all the take -aways in the world.
Tom

Answer

You are referring to takaway food in general, therefore des. With les you'd be referring to specific meals.

Answer

@Chris - You may be right, but how do you reconcile that with this lesson that says to use les when generalising?

Using le, la, l', les before nouns when generalising (definite articles)

I don't fully understand this myself, but I have a feeling that the rule seems to change when using manger or boire rather than aimer or détester, say.

Answer

I guess you can like all the take-away meals in the world, but you can only eat some of them.

Answer

Personally, I don't like take-away anyway.