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More natural language questions

From:David Peterson <digitalscream@...>
Date:Thursday, July 12, 2001, 18:20
    I'm having some translation problems with French and German.  First,
German:

    When you say "a pair of socks" and "a lot of socks", my girlfriend
(minoring in German) said you say "ein Paar Socken" and "eine Menge Socken".
I thought you'd have to insert "der" in between there to get that "of", but
she says it's idiomatic.  Is this true?

    Now, French:

    Okay, I never learned how to use the pronoun "en".  So, I've come to a
place where I think I might use it.  The sentence prior is "So, do you like
socks?  I like socks.  Do you know why?"  [Actually, that's three.  I'm
making a book for my unborn sister translated into about ten languages,
including two of my own.]  And the next sentence is, "Because if you put one
on your arm...", and I thought you might say, "Parce que si tu en mets sur
ton bras...", but I wasn't sure.  Confirm or deny, anyone?

-David

Replies

Dan Seriff <microtonal@...>
Thomas R. Wier <artabanos@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>