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Re: savoir-connaître (was: Re: can-may)

From:Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
Date:Tuesday, December 28, 2004, 7:50
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:54:52 -0500, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 28, 2004 at 01:02:14AM -0500, # 1 wrote: > Let me try my hand at translating your sentences into French. Most of > the variants have little or nothing to do with the future tense; the > time marker word takes care of saying when the action takes place, and > the rest is the same as if it were "today" instead of "tomorrow". > > > Tomorrow I go to work > > Most languages allow this very construction, do they not? Can one not > say in French, "Demain je vais au bureau"?
I learned that this is not the case -- that, contrary to English usage, a future occurrence must have a future verb. "I'm leaving for London tomorrow" would have to be "Je partirai pour(?) Londres demain".
> > Tomorrow I must go to work > > Tomorrow I should go to work > > Tomorrow I have to go to work > > I'd translate all of these into French as "Demain je dois aller au > bureau." The difference is only one of degree; "must" implies a stronger > obligation than "should", while "have to" is less specific and could > cover either of the other degrees depending on context.
I'd probably translate the "should" sentence with "je devrais".
> > Tomorrow I can go to work > > Tomorrow I may go to work > > As earlier messages on this topic showed, these are the same in French, > as well: Demain je peux aller au bureau.
I'd understand the "may" sentence as indicating likelihood rather than capability, and would translate this with a different structure -- probably "Peut-être que j'irai au bureau demain". Can "peux" be used to indicate likelihood as well?
> > Tomorrow I get to go to work > > Demain on me permet d'aller au bureau
Though English "get to do sth." is more flexible :) It need not have an implied agent giving permission -- for example, it can also indicate opportunity, which is slightly different. (As an example, "Yesterday, I got to use my French skills when a tourist asked me for directions" -- there's nobody who needed to give permission there.) So the sentence might also be "Demain j'aurai l'occasion d'aller au bureau"? Cheers, -- Philip Newton <philip.newton@...> Watch the Reply-To!