Nous avons goûté les rougails à la saucisse

Question

We say “j’aime le chocolat” (in general) or “j’ai mangé du chocolat” (a quantity). So I thought the translation for  “we tasted sausage rougails with yellow rice” might be “nous avons goûté DES rougails”, but the answer was “nous avons goûté LES rougails”. I thought it would follow the same logic as the accompanying yellow rice, “… avec du riz jaune”.  But my reasoning is obviously not quite correct. Can someone please explain why “les” and not “des” for the rougails?

Accepted Answer

I agree with Maarten. There was a similar question a while ago:
https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/il-a-goute-les-escargots-ou-il-a-goute-des-escargots

Answer

Hi Paul,It occurs to me that this was a Creole meal specific to that island and the ingredients are specific therefore definite articles.Hope this helpsJim

Answer

This one is just as in English - ‘we tasted the rougails … ‘ (that was at the picnic). ‘Goûter qqc’ implies not eating it all, as of course does ‘to taste (something)’ in English . If there were multiple different dishes of it, you could use ‘des rougails…’ if not all were tasted.

“On a mangé les rougails… “ on the other hand would mean ‘ate all ..

‘, so if that was not true ‘on a mangé des rougails….’ (Remember you can say ‘j’ai mangé le chocolat’ in reference to having eaten a specific known amount/piece of chocolate eg the chocolate that was in the fridge etc, but not as a general statement)

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/goûter/37669

Answer

Thanks to those that answered. I just looked up what a rougail was (a rich tomato based stew flavoured with aromatic spices and cooked over a low heat for those interested). Sounds good! To me in the context it still seems to me to be more logical to taste “du rougail” (some stew) or “des rougails” (some stews), but maybe “les rougails” just implies they tasted all the stews (that their hosts cooked up in the big pot).

Answer

Just to make life even more complicated, the Réunion Tourist Board (in French) features: Recette de l’authentique rougail saucisses with no preposition after rougail.