Timeline for What is the French equivalent of the sentence construction "Do X, and Y will happen"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 8, 2017 at 13:39 | comment | added | Luke Sawczak♦ | @guillaume31 Depuis quelques années je n'en suis plus trop certain ! But in any case, in my view replicating grammar isn't the aim of translation anyway. I think transferring a semantically questionable construction is the hard thing. And the sentence doesn't seem too ambiguous to me in that regard. | |
| Aug 8, 2017 at 8:54 | comment | added | guillaume31 | @LukeSawczak Indeed. But transferring a grammatically questionable construction directly to another language rarely hits the mark. There's usually some kind of logic to grammar. | |
| Aug 8, 2017 at 7:29 | comment | added | Luke Sawczak♦ | @guillaume31 Many incorrect things are nevertheless comprehensible, and one hopes that whatever's comprehensible is translatable :) At least, so say I from my naïve viewpoint on the matter. | |
| Aug 8, 2017 at 7:17 | comment | added | guillaume31 | @LukeSawczak oh, that one. Is it grammatically correct though? I tend to side with Lambie here. | |
| Aug 7, 2017 at 21:48 | comment | added | Lambie | @Alone-zee In your question, you say this is about "you", then here, you say it is not about Je. Regarde in French is the second person in the imperative, just like the English. It could be vous also: Régardez machin truc et [y]. | |
| Aug 7, 2017 at 21:44 | comment | added | Lambie | In English, Do X means (you) do x. If [you] do x. It is not first person at all in English. Do x is the same as If you do x, meaning-wise. If I were referring to myself, I would use the pronoun I.....In English, if you mean I, you have to state it. | |
| Aug 7, 2017 at 20:36 | comment | added | Luke Sawczak♦ | @guillaume31 I think Alone-zee means sentences like "Sit down to watch one episode and I end up spending the evening in front of the screen!" But I think that isn't really one of those general dictums ("Drink a little too much and the room will start to spin") but an elided subject: "I sit down to watch... and I end up..." So I wonder how best to express the latter in French? | |
| Aug 7, 2017 at 9:34 | comment | added | guillaume31 | @Alone-zee What do you mean by "this sentence is about je"? Can you give an example in English of "Do X, and ..." involving a first person subject? | |
| Aug 6, 2017 at 16:43 | comment | added | Stéphane Gimenez | When a general tu doesn't work, I can't see any other way than using a si clause. And by the way I can't see how this would be different in English. | |
| Aug 6, 2017 at 15:26 | comment | added | Con-gras-tue-les-chiens | Hi. This sentence is about "je", not "tu/vous", so can I only construct the sentence with the usual "si" clause like "si/quand je regarde ..., je ne manquerai pas ..."? | |
| Aug 6, 2017 at 7:20 | history | answered | Stéphane Gimenez | CC BY-SA 3.0 |