Re: More natural language questions

En réponse à David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>:

>     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?
>
As true as you say in English "one meter long" where in French we say "un mètre
_de_ long". You also say "a few socks" where no "of" is needed, or "a little
sugar" where French uses "un peu _de_ sucre". Like other Germanic languages,
English doesn't use much prepositions with quantity expressions, except with
expressions like "a lot of" which I've been taught to take as a whole, with the
preposition, since not all quantity expressions take it.

>     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?
>
"Parce ce que si tu en mets une sur ton bras..." is the exact translation of
"Because if you put one on your arm...". "Parce que si tu en mets sur ton
bras..." would imply that you put more than one on your arm. But you're correct
about the use of _en_ (I like those _adverbial pronouns_ as we call them. So
much that Narbonósc has three of them: _ie_: â+pro., _eim_: de+pro. and _né_:
em+pro.).

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Reply