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Grammar Breakdown of des centaines de millions de gen

1️⃣ Structure Analysis

• “des” → Indefinite article (plural of de + les), meaning “some.”
• “centaines” → Noun, meaning “hundreds.” It is the plural of centaine (“a hundred”).
• “de” → Preposition meaning “of,” used after quantities.
• “millions” → Noun, meaning “millions.”
• “de” → Again, preposition meaning “of.”
• “gens” → Plural noun meaning “people.”

2️⃣ Explanation of Quantity Rules

A) “centaines de millions” (Hundreds of millions)

• Centaine and million are nouns (not numbers in this case).
• When a quantity is expressed using a noun (e.g., centaine, douzaine, million, milliard), we use “de” before the thing being counted.
• ✅ “centaines de millions de gens” (hundreds of millions of people).
• ❌ “centaines des millions des gens” (incorrect).

B) Why “de” before “gens”?

• After “million”, we again use “de” before the noun being counted (gens).
• This follows the quantity + “de” + noun structure seen in phrases like:
  • “des centaines de livres” (hundreds of books).
  • “des millions d’habitants” (millions of inhabitants).

3️⃣ Simplifying the Phrase

• Des centaines de millions de gens = Hundreds of millions of people.
• The structure follows:
  (Indefinite quantity) + de + (bigger quantity) + de + (noun).

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