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

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/

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