Translate Please

honeymonster · 27-12-2002 4:44pm #1

can some translate this for me please, i tried to translate it on google and it came out @rse ways.

Its the 2002 Oral exam Section 1

+ Bonjour Michel. Si je comprends bien, il y a eu quelques problemes avec séjour ce linguistique en Angleterre.

- Oui, et ça des le début. Par exemple trois de jeunes Français n'avaient pas de familles présentes à l'accueil à l'aéroport de Manchester, et puis la famille oÙ était mon fils, la maman était là, mais Benoit ne l'a pratiquement jamais vue. C'était une dame qui vivait seule avec ses deux garçons. Elle partait très tôt le matin.

+ Alors votre fils devait s'occuper de lui-même?

- Oui, exactement. Il y avait un petit peu à manger dans le frigo et il avait le droit de se servir. En plus pour aller à son cours d'anglais, Benoit prenait le bus tout seul. A l'âge de 12 ans et demi, c'est trop jeune!

+ Il en garde quand même un bon souvenir?

- Ben oui ...... parce que, figurez-vous, il est allé en boîte. A cet âge là, 12 ans et demi! Imaginez! Aprés l'école, il allait dans une salle de billard. Il a trouvé ça génial.

tman · 27-12-2002 6:16pm

http://www.freetranslation.com/

should help you get the gist of it

spaczed · 27-12-2002 6:42pm

Well here it is - with a bit of help from the above mentioned site. Its just off the top of my head, i cant guarantee that it's 100%accurate (or even 90% but hey its a start :rolleyes: ). The bits in [ ] are just comments and stuff and if any francophiles stumble across this page, please correct any mistakes!

*Hello michel. If i understand fully, there were some problems with the language holiday [exchange type thing?] in England

*Yes and thats just to start. For example three of the french youngsters had no families present to welcome them [literally "at the welcome"] at Manchester Airport and the family who had my son, the mother was there but Benoit practically never saw her. It was a woman who lived alone with her two sons. She departed/left very early in the morning.

*Then your son had to take care of himself?

*Yes, exactly. There was a little to eat in the fridge and he could help himself. What's more to go to his class of English, Benoit took the bus all on his own. At the age of 12 year and half, he's too young!

*[this isn't exact but more or less] Bu
t he had a good time all the same?

*Why yes... because i suppose he went to a nightclub. At that age 12 and a half! Imagine! After school., he went to a snooker hall. He found it quite nice/ fun.

phreak · 27-12-2002 6:57pm

Originally posted by spaczed
Well here it is - with a bit of help from the above mentioned site. Its just off the top of my head, i cant guarantee that it's 100%accurate (or even 90% but hey its a start :rolleyes: ). The bits in [ ] are just comments and stuff and if any francophiles stumble across this page, please correct any mistakes!

*Hello michel. If i understand fully, there were some problems with the language holiday [exchange type thing?] in England

*Yes and thats just to start. For example three of the french youngsters had no families present to welcome them [literally "at the welcome"] at Manchester Airport and the family who had my son, the mother was there but Benoit practically never saw her. It was a woman who lived alone with her two sons. She departed/left very early in the morning.

*Then your son had to take care of himself?

*Yes, exactly. There was a little to eat in the fridge and he could help himself. What's more to go to his class of English, Benoit took the bus all on his own. At the age of 12 year and half, he's too young!

*[this isn't exact but more or less] Bu
t he had a good time all the same?

*Why yes... because i suppose he went to a nightclub. At that age 12 and a half! Imagine! After school., he went to a snooker hall. He found it quite nice/ fun.

seems to be a good translation. about as good as i could do anyway. maybe one of the native french people that visit this board could correct anything they see wrong.

honeymonster · 27-12-2002 7:04pm

thanks for the help

lili · 28-12-2002 12:54am

good translation

il en garde quand même un bon souvenir?
means :
does he keep by the way a good reminder of it?

not a good promotion for students exchange with france

Dun · 09-01-2003 4:32pm

Originally posted by lili
good translation
il en garde quand même un bon souvenir?
means :
does he keep by the way a good reminder of it?

In English, we'd say "So, does he have fond memories of [his stay] anyway?"

lili · 09-01-2003 4:37pm

dun,
may you please tell me if my sentence in english was wrong?
that will help me for my english:)

Dun · 09-01-2003 6:33pm

Originally posted by lili
dun,
may you please tell me if my sentence in english was wrong?
that will help me for my english:)

[Could you - "may" is only used with 'I' or 'we' to ask permission]

il en garde quand même un bon souvenir?
means :
does he keep by the way a good reminder of it?

reminder = rapel, mémento
souvenir = memory (here, in this case)

by the way = par hasard
quand même = anyway/nevertheless/still

But we have an idiom "to have fond memories of", which we would use here.

lili · 09-01-2003 7:36pm

thank you dun, i will try to remember it:)

domeara01 · 30-01-2003 5:15pm

CETAIT UN TRES BON TRANSLATION

Dun · 31-01-2003 10:05am

Originally posted by domeara01
CETAIT UN TRES BON TRANSLATION

Merci (I think you meant mine?).

translation = traduction

Also words ending in -tion in French are generally feminine, so it'd be a bonne traduction. Always useful to help sort out those confusing genders.

lili · 31-01-2003 11:21am

an advice :
keep confusing genders, it's too much charming:)

Dun · 31-01-2003 8:25pm

Originally posted by lili
an advice :
keep confusing genders, it's too much charming:)

LOL! It is quite nice to hear foreigners mix their grammar sometimes. I have to try to stop laughing whenever they say "I am exciting" / "I'm very interesting" instead of "excited"/"interested".

lili · 31-01-2003 8:31pm

i do that too!!:D
i wonder why

took me a long time to not say it, but now, i think i don't make the mistake:)

Dun · 31-01-2003 8:48pm

Do you live on this board? You've always replied to me within a few minutes

lili · 31-01-2003 8:52pm

haha:p
no, it's just that i have an email alarm whenever someone answer to my posts but i'm not always on line, i'm not that addicted:D

Dun · 11-02-2003 7:56pm

Hehe - I missed that one til now, but you were right on the ball - four minutes!!

lili · 15-02-2003 5:40pm

oops, i'm late:D

SuburbanDreamer · 24-02-2003 8:11pm

Originally posted by lili
an advice :
keep confusing genders, it's too much charming:)

Thank goodness for that - I'm always mixing up my genders, I can't learn them all for the different words so I just guess !

lili · 24-02-2003 8:45pm

must be a damned "casse tête" for foreigners:)
and sometimes it's not very logical.
an example :
après-midi
you could think that would be UN après-midi, cause 'midi' is masculin. in fact no, it's UNE après-midi:)

Dun · 24-02-2003 11:54pm

It can be, but eventually you get it. It's a lot easier in Spanish. I also found that as a very loose rule, if the French word sounds like it's Spanish counterpart, then their gender are the same. The big exception is French "la fin" vs. Spanish "el fín".

Also according to Collins-English Dictionary, and Le Petit Robert, après-midi can be masculine or feminine

An example gives "cet après-midi" in both Collins & le Robert.

lili · 25-02-2003 7:36am

yes, you're right, the french writers prefere it in feminine version but you can say the both.:)
dun, are you a teacher? how come you know so well the french?

Dun · 25-02-2003 1:14pm

Gawd no, I don't think I could become a teacher. At least not here. No, I did my degree in French and Spanish.

lili · 25-02-2003 1:24pm

how long did you learn french?
cause me, i write english in forums since 2 years and i'm desperatly nulle:(

Dun · 25-02-2003 1:49pm

Depuis l'âge de 12 ans.. j'ai 23 maintenant. Mais je n'ai pas parlé en français pendant presque 18 mois :eek: (quand j'ai terminé mes études). Il faut que je retourne en France avant d'oublier tous!

You're so quick replying!!

lili · 25-02-2003 2:00pm

hehe, and i don't do my best replying:D

si tu veux, on pourrait parler en français ici de temps en temps, cela t'aiderait à ne pas oublier:)

Dun · 25-02-2003 3:04pm

Bon! J'ai besoin d'apprendre plus de français moins académique - plus la langue de la population générale..

lili · 25-02-2003 4:58pm

non, c'est bon, ton français est parfait et de toutes façons je préfère le français académique:)
hem... et je fais plein de fautes d'orthographe quand je ne me concentre pas;)

Dun · 25-02-2003 6:52pm

Tout au début de mes études universitairs, je me suis consacré à écrire sans fautes d'orthographe, ou bien de ponctuation (en anglais - en français ou espagnol ce n'est pas toujours possible:( ) et maintenant, j'ai du mal à écrire mal - comme les SMS, je ne peux écrire "C U L8R". C'est pas une langue, c'est un cauchemar! Il faut que j'écrive tous les mots et avec la bonne ponctuation. Mais je ne veux pas baisser la langue - il y a déjà trop qui font ça, surtout avec l'influence americaine. Je suis tout en faveur de parler un dialecte ou avec un accent chez soi, mais le dialecte/accent de la région - pas des Etats Unis!

lili · 25-02-2003 9:53pm

lol, c'est pas gentil pour tes cousins américains:D
que veut dire dun-do-bheal?

Dun · 25-02-2003 10:26pm

J'en ai marre des Americains, franchement. J'ai eu trop de contact avec certains, et ils sont beaucoup trop pompeux pour moi. Ils passent tous les jours en décrire comment leur pays est meilleur que le nôtre, et en fait le mieux de tous. :rolleyes: Pas si gentils eux-mêmes! S'ils ont un problème avec mes avis, ils savent (comme ils savent tous..) où j'habite, et ils ont plein de bombes. Je vous attends!

Dún do bhéal = ferme ta gaule en irlandais

Pas si impoli pour nous, je crois.

( ≈ Doune dau vé-el en orthographe français)

lili · 25-02-2003 10:52pm

haha, c'est ta gueule pas ta gaule, ta gaule cela veut dire autre chose:D
la prochaine fois qu'un irlandais sera impoli avec moi, je lui dirai ça:)
je pense qu'il ne faut pas généraliser, mais dans l'ensemble, ils sont assez idiots et imbus d'eux même;)

Dun · 25-02-2003 11:05pm

Originally posted by lili
haha, c'est ta gueule pas ta gaule, ta gaule cela veut dire autre chose:D

Oops

je pense qu'il ne faut pas généraliser, mais dans l'ensemble, ils sont assez idiots et imbus d'eux même;)

Exactement!

Je vais aller fermer ma gueule avant de dire quelque chose d'autre pour t'amuser!

lili · 25-02-2003 11:15pm

si si, raconte, j'ai envie de rigoler:)

Dun · 26-02-2003 9:21am

Yeah, yeah have a laugh at my expense!!

Comment est-ce qu'on dirait ça en français? Quelque chose pas trop académique!

lili · 26-02-2003 10:51am

not académique french would be :

have a laugh >>> marre toi!

expense, tu veux dire 'dépense'?

Dun · 26-02-2003 6:56pm

Sélon le dictionnaire Collins, la phrase anglaise "to have a laugh at someone's expense" = bien rire aux dépens de quelqu'un

donc je t'ai dit de bien rire à mes dépens?

lili · 27-02-2003 3:03am

ah ok, got it:)

alors la traduction en français peu académique serait :

oui, c'est ça, fout toi de ma gueule!

Dun · 27-02-2003 9:55am

Great! Merci.

Perhaps we should start a new thread for idioms? I think it would be quite useful to be able to say things the way normal French people speak rather than 'talking like a book' all the time

lili · 27-02-2003 10:00am

ok, i let you open it:)

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