some problems with French

Could the mystery phrase be simply "... mais ca ne fait rien" ?!

In French it makes sense!

Isn' that written "sanfairyann"

Good point for you Walter, eheh!

Re
>Your example - demande, démanteler. This words are of different etymologies.

Some interesting news for me (BTW how is it said in French: "I'm damned if I know")?. Can you give more examples of such old French words that can be found within modern lexic and that contain either é or e?

>About the rules, I'll try to put it straight later.

If it's too dificult then I can ask in another way: when a French student studies English, what he is told about the difference between French and English articles?

>When you are there and you know it by being there before : Je suis à la station-service.

>When you are there but you dont know it : Je suis dans une station-service.

If I got you right then the word "à" or "dans" is chosen depending the used article? In other words we can't say "Je suis dans la magasin" or "Je suis à un magasin", right?

Do you have any other couples of prepositions that work in the same order?

And also once I found an expression "dans cette rue". For me "cette rue" sounds more likely "la rue", so why can't we say "à cette rue"? That case is different?

1 another problem I've been thinking for a while is the usage of the terms "plus" and "moins".

Can we use them in such a way: "Objet N1 est plus petit que objet N2". AFAIK the term "plus petit" - "more little" sounds incorrect in both Russian and English. If something is less than any else what's the best way to point it out:
"cet objet est plus petit que qch"
"cet objet est moins grand que qch"
or may be even:
"cet objet est moins petit que qch"
?

2 As I got to know - the size or quality (bon, beau) of an object is always before the noun while the rest adjectives are after. Don't you have a more detailed rule about the order of the latters - I mean like in English - age, shape, colour, origin, material?

3 A French holiday - Day of Memory (Jour de Souvenir) - takes place on April 24. What does this date mean? The teacher said it must be about a war, but I couldn't remember any war on France that started on April 24. And by the way - how many of French holidays are free days (when you don't have to work)?

4 What's the best way to say "I'm gonna" in French? In some movie I met such an expression as "Je vais faire ... " Is it that what I mean or I simply misunderstood the phrase?

Many thanks in advance.

>Could the mystery phrase be simply "... mais ca ne fait rien" ?!

Very well it can be. Why not?

Answering the most easiest: Jour de Souvenir = end of WWI = la Première Guerre mondiale.

Half right, Walter!


Docent P wrote :



- "Le jour du Souvenir" takes places each November Eleventh and commemorates the end of World War I.

- "Le jour du Souvenir des déportés" (deported Day of Memory) takes place each April's last Sunday, therefor it's not a holiday.

The only holiday, compulsory and paid for all is May 1st (Labor day).

Other Holidays are non working and paid days, depending on Unions agreements and regions.

Le Nouvel an (1er janvier),
le lundi de Pâques (fête chrétienne),
le 8 mai victoire 1945,
le jeudi de l'Ascension (fête catholique),
la fête nationale le 14 juillet (révolution - prise de la bastille), l'Assomption (le 15 août) (fête catholique),
la Toussaint (1er novembre) (fête catholique),
l'Armistice 1918 (11 novembre), jour du souvenir,
Noël (25 décembre) (fête chrétienne)

Well, better a 'half right Walter' than an «à demi nu Gautier» :wink:

I assume you are talking about Nicolas?

No, not I wasn't talking about Père Noël but about how I was dressed in that very moment :wink:

Now, make a little googling about Nicolas Gauthier and you will see what I meant. :wink:

I'm more than certain that you are referring to Nicolas Gautier, late marbrier in Molinges.

On the other hand, and since the missus is not at home: artistique, artistique those other photos!!!

Docent P wrote :



I'm damned if I know : literally > que je sois maudit si je le savais!

more current is : que le diable m'emporte si je le savais!

any french book contains dozens of long living words with accents, for example :

- débâcle
- débiteur
- débander
- débattre
- déborder

and

- demeurer
- dernier
- desserrer
- dette
- devant
- devenir

Et pourtant..

"Damned if I know" est le present, non pas le passe ou passe compose.

Par exemple: ou diable sont les accents?!

Hoft :

Les traducteurs accomplis (ce que je ne suis pas) ne doivent pas, le plus souvent, traduire littéralement une phrase.

Afin d'obtenir l'effet escompté, ils doivent s'efforcer de rendre un contexte ou un effet de phrase.

Dans le cas d'espèce, c'est une expression dont la valeur sémiologique serait la même qui est recherchée.

Celle-ci, "que le diable m'emporte", traduit absolument le sens que Docent P voulait donner à sa phrase.

Quant à sa construction grammaticale, elle est bien plus correcte que l'original de Docent P.

En effet, je viens de lui apprendre que " demande et démanteler" sont deux mots d'étymologies différentes. Il ne peut donc plus utiliser le présent du verbe savoir dans sa forme négative, alors qu'auparavant il ne le savait pas. Dire "que le diable m'emporte si je le sais" n'a donc plus de sens.

Quant aux accents, ayant relu mon message, je ne vois pas où il en manque.

nothing to do with rules over the accents but I was taught that the e acute can often be changed to an st and voila - you have the English translation


ie etable (can't type the acute accent, sorry) = stable, etranger = stranger and there are several other words that work in the same way (not all)

Sorry for your ie étable! It doesn't match the rule.

The word stable (e) is stable (f).

But, usually, it can be done that way.

Francis - there were no missing accents in YOUR post(s), but unfortunately there are many such in MY posts due to keyboard limitations! Sorry didn't make it clear earlier.

I think you're doing a wonderful job here and I have learned a lot from your comments. Thanks.

HofT:

(I'd an afterthought on "you" missing accents, sorry). Anyway you can put accents by copying it in the "caracthers map" of your OS.

Thank you for your encouraging words!