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Re: Verb specificity (Was: Re: Natural Order of Events)

From:Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets <tsela.cg@...>
Date:Wednesday, January 28, 2009, 14:02
2009/1/28 Eugene Oh <un.doing@...>

> 2009/1/28 Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets <tsela.cg@...> > > > > > That's really interesting. I know about classifiers in the context of > > counting, but didn't know that such things existed also in other > contexts. > > At the same time, English does ride or drive, depending on the vehicle, > > while French uses a single word "conduire" (which we actually don't use > > that > > much anyway). > > -- > > > > That's interesting, I didn't know that. All the French textbooks teach > "conduire" as the verb to use. So what do you say for, say, "I'm driving to > work today"? > > Eugene >
"Aujourd'hui je vais au travail en voiture": Today I'm going to work by car. We just "go" or "come" to places, and indicate the means with a complement of means: "en voiture": by car, "à pied": on foot, "en vélo": by bike, "en bus": by bus, etc... This is actually a common feature of French and a difference between French and English that we are taught at school in English classes: English often uses a verb to indicate the means, and a complement to indicate the goal, when French often does the opposite (it's not always true, but as a rule of thumb it works). It's especially true of motion sentences (English people drive, walk, ride, run, while French people simply go by car, on foot, by bike, or running: "en courant"), but it's also used for instance with changes of state ("The floor was mopped clean" would be "Le sol a été nettoyé à la serpillière") and more metaphorical motions ("I worked my way to the top" would be "J'ai atteint le sommet en travaillant"). It's a very important difference between how French and English approach actions. Aren't people in French class taught it? -- Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets. http://christophoronomicon.blogspot.com/ http://www.christophoronomicon.nl/

Replies

Michael Poxon <mike@...>
caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Eugene Oh <un.doing@...>
Paul Kershaw <ptkershaw@...>