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Recently, I was on holiday in Paris. During my stay, I saw some French posters related to the film "Frozen".

The French title, "La Reine des neiges" literally translates to "The Queen of snows" - in other languages, it is merely "snow queen", though. Why is it plural in French?

I am aware that this is also the title of the original Danish Andersen fairy tale - this might just be a historic translation. Still, I wonder if there is more to it.

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    I'd go with “neige” is uncountable (same as much vs many). “La Reine de neige” is the “Queen made of Snow“, “La Reine de la neige” would be “The Queen of that snow” (pointing out a special area of snow, which sounds weird, which in with another version with forest “The Queen of the forest” of that particular forest vs “The Forest Queen”, of all forests).
    – Larme
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 18:18
  • Les neiges means "the snow cover". La neige is the stuff this cover is made of. See fr.wkt: fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/neige 2nd meaning.
    – François Jurain
    Commented Dec 10 at 10:46
  • @FrançoisJurain What second meaning? Do you mean the example under 2)? the snows of Scotland?
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 11 at 18:56
  • @Lambie yes: meaning number 2, "snowy climate".
    – François Jurain
    Commented 2 days ago

3 Answers 3

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La neige is just that ephemeral substance while les neiges is more abstract, generic, poetical and somewhat timeless.

It is used in expressions like les neiges d'antan, les neiges éternelles and les neiges du Kilimandjaro. Compare "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" to "Kilimanjaro Snow", the latter looks like a weather forecast or ski resort ad.

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    This the best answer, this kind of plural exists in English too, and La Reine de la neige would be totally correct (but less poetic).
    – Destal
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 20:22
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    @SimonDéchamps Yes, a reine de la neige might more bring a gold medal from the winter olympics or be a car winning the Monte-Carlo Rallye, not be a "real" queen (or princess) struggling with her superpowers ;-)
    – jlliagre
    Commented Oct 13, 2016 at 22:01
  • les neiges is timeless and abstract? Hmm Robert Estienne en rend compte dans son dictionnaire, les exemples donnés sont agréablement concrets, [.... Ainsi, «les neiges demeurent sur les terres & ne fondent point» avance-t-il en guise de second exemple. [...] Et enfin pour faire contraste définitivement à la «neige croupie» nous est offert le «rafreschi de neiges», une formulation oubliée mais assurément à relancer. lefigaro.fr/langue-francaise/actu-des-mots/2018/02/12/…
    – Lambie
    Commented yesterday
  • @Lambie Quand les neiges ont fondu, la Reine des neiges le reste.
    – jlliagre
    Commented 23 hours ago
  • Your first sentence is flat-out wrong: La neige is just that ephemeral substance while les neiges is more abstract, generic, poetical and somewhat timeless.|| La neige is just the substance, while les neiges is poetic. But neither is "abstract or generic" Abstract snow? Only in expressionism.
    – Lambie
    Commented 22 hours ago
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"La Reine des neiges" does mean "Snow Queen". In French, you would not say "La Reine de neige" or "La Reine de la Neige" because it does not necessary sound right. In this case, I do not know exactly why it is plural in French and not in English. I believe it is only a question of preference and the way it sounds.

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  • Does not sound right? It's more than that.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 10 at 22:31
  • @Lambie Not that you can't comment in such case but did you notice that you are commenting an answer written eight years ago by someone who didn't show up in the last six years?
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 11 at 7:40
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snowfall or snowfalls = les neiges dans les textes ci-dessous.

Bien entendu, il y aura des différences entre la météo du samedi et du dimanche. Il fera très froid durant les deux jours, avec des neiges en montagne, mais il y aura quelques différences. Entrons dans les détails par rapport aux prévisions du 25 et 26 novembre !

Un temps très froid nous attend ce week-end ! It will be very cold for two days with snow in the mountains but with a few differences. Let's get into the details with our forecast for November 25th and 26th. la méteo

Jamais le panorama des Pyrénées, où les neiges cette année semblent himalayennes, ne nous était apparu si pur et translucide dans ses lointains bleutés, si net et bucolique dans son premier plan de coteaux à la Mantegna. Le Monde
Never have the views in the Pyrenees, where the snow this year seems Himalayan, looked so pure and etc.

snows = les neiges Les neiges du Kilmanjaro de Hemingway

La traduction littérale ne marche pas très bien et peut induire en erreur.

snowfall ou snowfalls en anglais peut se dire les neiges en français. In some cases, it's chutes de neiges. But not always as shown above.

The Snow Queen en anglais est « poétique » Pour donner cette idée en français "des neiges" marche mieux. Et puis on peut trouver d'autres exemples au/du pluriel un peu partout.

Le roi des combats de rue, dans la presse
La Princesse des sables, un livre
La Princesse des glaces, livre
Le roi des cons, filme (1981)

La reine de neige does not work in French because that would mean: The queen made of snow. And reine de la neige is not as captivating as des neiges and would be like saying in English, the queen of the snow [a substance].

Poupée de soie is a French vintage clothing store. Why? Because it means a silk doll i.e. made of silk. Very often when there is a noun de [noun] in French, the English can be [adjective] noun.

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    1. snowfall ou snowfalls en anglais peut se dire les neiges en français : pas vraiment, snowfall(s) se traduit par chutes de neige ou simplement de la neige mais pas par les neiges. La deuxième de tes citations ne traduit en particulier pas chutes de neige mais neige au sol. 2. Tu aurais pu choisir mieux que poupée de soie qui n'est pas une collocation courante. Je te suggère poupée de cire, poupée de porcelaine, poupée de chiffon ou l'excellent poupée de son.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 11 at 7:51
  • @jlliagre chutes de neiges is snowfall, as any dictionary will attest. However, les neiges is the snow in normal parlance because in English, the snows is not used much in weather forecasts etc. snowfalls is used in statistics, etc. We don't say snow on the ground in contexts like the one in 2) above. It's just snow. Like I said, dictionaries can lead to translation errors. Also, poupée de soie is silk doll, poupée de cire, is wax doll, rag doll etc.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 11 at 15:28
  • A noun + [de noun] in French is an [adjective] + noun in English, regardless of context. Most of the time. Sports de combat, combat sport.
    – Lambie
    Commented Dec 11 at 15:33
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    How does that answer to my comment? 1. Your first sentence is still incorrect. The first quote is non-idiomatic (it's the only sentence Google finds with avec des neiges en montagne), the second one has nothing to do with snowfalls. In statistics, we never say les neiges. The plural neiges is mostly used in fonte des neiges (snowmelt) where neiges is not snowfalls. 2. I didn't ask for a translation of poupée de cire, porcelaine, ... or for obvious translation tricks, I just told you that poupée de soie was a poor choice when you have so much better ones available.
    – jlliagre
    Commented Dec 11 at 16:45
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    @Lambie The question is about understanding the construct La reine des neiges and your answer does not help at all in this particular respect. Not to mean it lacks any merit.
    – François Jurain
    Commented 2 days ago

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