lundi 17 mars 2008
The more I (sorta) learn another language, the more am I amazed at how many concepts, words, phrases, expressions etc. in one language don't (in my opinion) have a proper translation into the other language.
For example:
In English: lonely
I don't feel that there is really a good way in French to translate this concept.
Using the French-English dictionaries, I get
"I feel alone today"
"I am isolated"
"I am sad"
Well, I can be alone or isolated without feeling lonely. I can be lonely and sad, but sad isn't necessarily lonely, and lonely isn't necessarily sad.
Other translations given are: solitary, suffering from solitudness, desolate, and rarely frequented.
"I am feeling rarely frequented today". (wait, that doesn't sound right)
Other examples?
For example:
In English: lonely
I don't feel that there is really a good way in French to translate this concept.
Using the French-English dictionaries, I get
"I feel alone today"
"I am isolated"
"I am sad"
Well, I can be alone or isolated without feeling lonely. I can be lonely and sad, but sad isn't necessarily lonely, and lonely isn't necessarily sad.
Other translations given are: solitary, suffering from solitudness, desolate, and rarely frequented.
"I am feeling rarely frequented today". (wait, that doesn't sound right)
Other examples?
Libellés :
Ex-patness
Inscription à :
Publier les commentaires (Atom)
About Me
Blog Archive
Libellés
- 101 (13)
- Aix en Provence (13)
- Alain (22)
- Baby (11)
- Bureaucracy (14)
- Cooking (14)
- Daily Life (31)
- Dealing with the French (33)
- Entertainment (1)
- Ex-patness (14)
- Family (37)
- Food (1)
- French Customs (40)
- French Language (20)
- Friends (10)
- Fromage (14)
- Health (21)
- Hobbies (4)
- Holidays (29)
- Homesick (11)
- Jobs (10)
- July 22 (5)
- Marriage (1)
- Marseille (10)
- Me (3)
- Memories (3)
- Misc (40)
- Mishaps (16)
- Motorcycle (5)
- Music (2)
- Nationalité (3)
- Our Apartment (45)
- Overheard (2)
- parenting (2)
- Patents (24)
- Pictures (25)
- Provence (32)
- Ramblings (21)
- Random (1)
- Rants (30)
- Restaurants (1)
- Rugrats (7)
- S. (2)
- Scientific Stuff (4)
- Social Awkwardness (1)
- Sports (1)
- Strasbourg (13)
- Trips (52)
- VMI (12)
- Wedding (24)
- Wine (2)
- Wordless Wednesday (3)
Favorite Posts
-
I picked up my French passport this morning. It has been ready for awhile, I received the text message saying it was available for pick-up a... -
The above cartoon for kids to color, cut out, and fold into a cube shape. Then the cube is to be placed in the center of the table for remi... -
Come to an end. My maternity leave is ending and I return to work on Monday. Alain will then take his two weeks of paternity leave, then we... -
you buy something from Sephora and get "premiér rides" (first wrinkles cream) samples. Sigh. Today is my birthday. The big 3-0. Su... -
Someone had other plans. Our daughter S. decided to make her appearance weeks ahead of schedule. (We have decided not to post her full name,...
-
One more month... More or less. One more week of work. I was actually supposed to stop February 4th (six weeks before D-Day) but now French...
-
I think I am entering the 'tired' stage of pregnancy. And no, not just physically tired. Tired of lying down, tired of sitting, tire...
-
Got back from Strasbourg just fine. My wallet however, did not. After my long train trip back home, and being called "sale race" (...
-
One thing that you learn very quickly when starting to learn french is that absolutely everything has a gender. And you had better know it, ...
5 commentaires:
This is what WordReference.com had to say: http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/lonely
From the top of my mind, I'd say "se sentir seul(e)" for to be lonely...
Other examples?
Tons... (but as usual, I suck with coming up with examples without a context) :-)
try "seul(e)"... pretty much exactly what you're looking for. trust me, the concept of lonely very much exists in france...
"seul(e)" translates more as "alone", not "lonely" which is not only a state, but also a feeling, hence the "se sentir" added to it.
The concept of lonely exists in France for sure, but we use two words to express it where only one is necessary in English.
Ha ha! Rarely frequented...I like it, I might start teaching it to my English students!