Translation tips & tricks

[Creirwy Arianrod du Nord]

Mais oui tout à fait Freya!
Les interprétations peuvent êtres multiples...
Les explications sont claires, et il y a assez de définitions ici pour que notre chère Druide Verte fasse son choix, trouve son compte.

[Freya Kä]

Tu me rassures Creirwy!

[ideagirl]

Je pense avoir mis assez de mots et de possibilités pour illustrer ce que "awe" signifie selon le contexte. Les dictionnaires en tout cas semblent à l'aise avec "respect".

Je ne vous attaque pas personellement, bien au contraire; on ne peut pas s'attendre a ce vous fassiez mieux que les dicos que vous possedez! Je voulais simplement indiquer que ces traductions ne captaient pas l'essentiel de ce mot. Mon Larousse bilingue, dico enorme qui compte plus de 500,000 traductions, donne pour "awe" ceci: "effroi mele d'admiration et du respect." C'est une bonne traduction, meme si elle nous oblige a faire une phrase beaucoup plus longue.

[ideagirl]

Awe? Reverence?

We never got to reverence, did we. That's much easier: it's reverence or veneration; both of those are feminine nouns with accents aigus above the first two e's. But if your sentence is something to the effect of "they hold her in reverence," you would use a verb instead: ils la reverent or ils la venerent. In the verb form, the second e has an accent grave instead of an accent aigu.

[Underground River]

Merci beaucoup!

DruideVerte
Je suis trop fatiguee pour penser en Francais aujourd'hui.

[Creirwy Arianrod du Nord]

Héhé...
Prends soin de toi DruideVerte!
Et pour le reste je trouve bien tout ses points de vue qui se complètent et qui laissent la place à chacun d'y trouver son compte!
Merci à chacun qui participe à ce petit coin d'échanges!

[Seko]

Petite explication de quelques abréviation que l'on trouve sur internet... Certains sont évident, d'autre beaucoup moins si l'anglais n'est pas notre première langue!

LOL laughing out load
ROFL rolling on the floor laughing
AFAIK as far as i know
IMHO in my humble opinion

[Freya Kä]

J'en connais d'autres plus vulgaires.

Mais pour LOL, je crois que c'est plutôt Laughing Out Loud et non Load!  :wink:

[Wren MacDonald]

Hello:

I am not going to attempt to say this in French, as I would probably make a complete fool of myself,  :D  but I figured this was the place to ask!

I am trying to teach myself French, and was wondering if anyone knew of any good books/sources I might try?  Language books are always pretty relative... I end up buying several before I find one that I really like and can learn from.  So I thought I'd ask for suggestions (keeping in mind that I am a definate beginner).  

Thanks to any that reply!!  


Wren ^.~*

[Arashi]

Try http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/index.shtml

And don't worry if you make mistake we could always corrected.

[Underground River]

You could also try the library that way you could return the tapes/books.
Good luck learning French, learning a language is always so much fun even though it is of course challenging!
DruideVerte

[Wren MacDonald]

Thanks for the suggestions!  

Currently I am working with a tape set that I like, but it's all audio so it doesn't help me learn to spell so I can post here in French with any kind of competency.  

I think I may take a look at the library!  Thanks GD!  ^_^

And thanks also for the link, Arashi, I am looking there now!  


Wren ^.~*

[ideagirl]

"Awe" peut se traduire par plusieurs mots, dépendant du contexte.
awe (esteem): estime, respect
in awe: être intimidé
Awe-struck: terrifié, craintif
Awesome(impressive): impressionnant, génial, formidable
Awesome (dreadful): terrible

Le probleme, c'est qu'en anglais le mot "awe" n'a plus aucune connotation de crainte. Autrefois (19e et auparavant) il pouvait avoir ce sens, mais meme a cette epoque-la le mot avait en meme temps un sens plus positif: il s'agissait d'un melange de crainte et d'emerveillement--mais le mot "emerveillement" n'est pas assez fort; "awe," c'est intense, comme ce que l'on pourrait ressentir devant un dieu.

The problem is that in English the word "awe" no longer has any connotation of fear. Back in the day (19th century and earlier) it could have that meaning, but even then the word had, at the same time a more positive sense: it was a mixture of fear and wonder--but the word "wonder" isn't strong enough; "awe" is intense, like what you might feel looking at a god.

[ideagirl]

I am trying to teach myself French, and was wondering if anyone knew of any good books/sources I might try? Language books are always pretty relative... I end up buying several before I find one that I really like and can learn from. So I thought I'd ask for suggestions (keeping in mind that I am a definate beginner).

Excellent! Bonne chance! My #1 suggestion, and I'm speaking as a native English speaker who's bilingual in French and used to teach French as a foreign language, is to go to your library and get Pimsleur French CDs. If your library doesn't have it, they should be able to get it in through interlibrary loan. I'm suggesting your library because one level of the three-level Pimsleur course costs (ahem!) $300. Pimsleur CDs are in my local library, so I know libraries have them.

Pimsleur is all-oral, but if you're a beginner, that really is the best way to learn: start oral, and only try to master spelling and grammar once you can already speak and understand. That's how the brain is wired--that's how we learn language to begin with, so it's much easier to learn that way than if you try to learn reading and writing from the get-go. And this is especially true of French, because to English eyes, written French looks nothing like it sounds--its spelling is about as non-phonetic as you can get (contrast that with Italian, which is totally phonetic).

And Pimsleur works AMAZINGLY well. It really does. By the end of every lesson, you can speak and understand an entire little conversation. It's INSANE how well it works.

[treegod]

Bien, un autre fil pour aprendre le français.

Comment pouvez-vous dire... erm... I don't know what to say.

Actually, let's start with that "I don't know what to say."

Also, what's a better way of saying "How do you say..." than the Google Translate thing I got above (maybe it's okay, but I don't know).

Also "corrections are welcome".

[DJ Droood]

Bien, un autre fil pour aprendre le français.

Comment pouvez-vous dire... erm... I don't know what to say.

Actually, let's start with that "I don't know what to say."

Also, what's a better way of saying "How do you say..." than the Google Translate thing I got above (maybe it's okay, but I don't know).

Also "corrections are welcome".

Comment tu dit?

[treegod]

That sounds about right, for 2nd person singular (tu). But what about 2nd person plural (vous)?

Comment vous dire/dit?

What the correct verb form in this question?

Edit: or maybe it doesn't require tu/vous here, maybe, like Spanish you can say "how is it said" Cómo se dice.

[DJ Droood]

That sounds about right, for 2nd person singular (tu). But what about 2nd person plural (vous)?

Comment vous dire/dit?

What the correct verb form in this question?

Edit: or maybe it doesn't require tu/vous here, maybe, like Spanish you can say "how is it said" Cómo se dice.

I think so...dire is the verb...I just googled present tense...vous dites....

[ideagirl]

That sounds about right, for 2nd person singular (tu). But what about 2nd person plural (vous)?

Comment vous dire/dit?

What the correct verb form in this question?

Edit: or maybe it doesn't require tu/vous here, maybe, like Spanish you can say "how is it said" Cómo se dice.

Yeah, it wouldn't be "you" (tu or vous). People usually say "Ca se dit comment?" (with a cedilla on the C in "ca"). So literally, it's very similar to your Spanish example: "That says itself how?"

That would be for the actual question ("How do you say that?"). If you were talking, couldn't think of a word and were thinking out loud, a la "uh, how do you say that... oh yeah, blah blah!" you might instead say, "euh, on dit comment... ah oui, blabla!" ("uh, one says how... oh yes, blah blah!"). Or if you want to sound more formal, "euh, comment dit-on... ah oui..."

[treegod]

Yeah, it wouldn't be "you" (tu or vous). People usually say "Ca se dit comment?" (with a cedilla on the C in "ca"). So literally, it's very similar to your Spanish example: "That says itself how?"

That would be for the actual question ("How do you say that?"). If you were talking, couldn't think of a word and were thinking out loud, a la "uh, how do you say that... oh yeah, blah blah!" you might instead say, "euh, on dit comment... ah oui, blabla!" ("uh, one says how... oh yes, blah blah!"). Or if you want to sound more formal, "euh, comment dit-on... ah oui..."

Merci beaucoup pour ça.

I recognise "on dit comment" as something my girlfriend told me once, but I forgot.