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Re: Cheap, shallow and super: French deficiencies

From:Carlos Thompson <chlewey@...>
Date:Monday, March 1, 2004, 3:26
Philippe Caquant wrote:

> It's also striking that French hasn't a word for > *shallow*. This is even worse than *cheap*, because if > I want to find the English, German or Spanish word for > *bon marche'* in a lexicon, I can look at *marche*, or > sometimes at *bon* ; but if I want to translate *peu > profond* (the equivalent for *shallow*, lit. = little > deep), I might often NOT find anything, neither at > *profond*, nor at *peu*. So it will be impossible for > me to know that there is such a word like *shallow*, > or *flach* - in Spanish, I think that it is *bajo*, > but I'm not sure.
If you mean a body of water (i.e. a lake or a swimming pool) that is not deep, the word is *pando*. For something that lies near the surface: *superficial*. -- Carlos Th