Plural or not - regarder/observer

Question

1 "qui semblaient occupés à transporter de la nourriture jusqu'à leur terrier". Why not "leurs terriers"? The English text is "their burrows", i e in plural.

2. "Elles sont restées à les regarder une dizaine de minutes". The first time I worked through this translation excercise I used "observer" as a translation of "observe", but this was flagged and not given as an alternative. Thus, in the second time around I used "regarder", but this time "observer" was the correct translation and "regarder" was not given as an alternative. I cannot be wrong both times🤔.

Maarten Kamp · Answer

S.B.

Regarding part 1 of your question, the rules around describing possessors and possessions are different for French and English.

The Laura Lawless links below discuss the different combinations, including ‘ tricky ‘ and ‘ really tricky ‘ situations. I won’t cover all the nuances because the articles do this quite well - my answer below is specific to the context in the example given.

Both answers you suggest would be grammatically correct when used in the right context, so understanding the context is important. The fact that the English is plural however is insufficient to automatically confirm the plural adjective-plural possession form in French in this case.

From the English original statement as given, we know there are multiple burrows. The question is how are the possessions divided amongst the ‘ bugs ‘.

Do you think that each of the bugs ‘ possesses ‘ ( is taking food to ) multiple burrows, or that it is one bug, one burrow ?

If your interpretation is the former, then the plural adjective-plural possession forms in French would be correct as this is required when each possessor has more than 1 possession - leurs terriers.

However, if you understand it as each bug only ‘ possessing ‘ one burrow, the translation into French needs to be singular adjective-singular possession form.

Personally I think a clue like ‘ 1 bug, 1 burrow ‘, which should be enough to get people thinking about the grammar rules without making it so easy as to remove any challenge, would be appropriate if both answers are not being accepted.

I will leave the 2nd question to the team.

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/possessive-adjectives-plural-possessions/

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/possessive-adjectives-plural-possessors/