"un des meilleurs" or "l'un des meilleurs"? [duplicate]

Question

This is one of the best movies this year.

Should this be translated as

"C'est un des meilleurs films cette année."

or

"C'est l'un des meilleurs films cette année"?

I've seen versions with "un" and "l'un" and I don't understand what the difference is.

jlliagre · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-13 13:32:31Z

2

There is no significant difference. The variant with l'un might be considered slightly more formal, but not that much and not by everyone.

I would have added de before cette année.

C'est l'un des meilleurs films de cette année.

or better:

C'est l'un des meilleurs films de l'année.

answered Sep 13, 2016 at 13:32

jlliagre

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de l'année: only if you are talking about the actual year, I would say. de cette année can refer to another year you just talked about. Like in English I suppose (of the year refers to the actual year, of this year can refer to another year if you mentioned it before).
– Destal
Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 18:26
@SimonDéchamps The question states "this year" which is always the ongoing year in English. Otherwise, "that year" would have been used. PS: Beware about the false friend "actual" which doesn't mean "actuel" but "véritable".
– jlliagre
Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 20:46
A theory of mine: "L'un" contains L apostrophe because we refer to the movie we are talking about specifically like in a movie review, but without L apostrophe we could be talking about all the movies of the year where we are pointing one movie among the list.
– cram2208
Commented Sep 14, 2016 at 20:02
Couldn't adding apostrophe l (for le) reinforces that the movie is one of the best? When I read both sentences I feel with apostrophe l it stresses that it is one of the best. What about that ?
– cram2208
Commented Sep 14, 2016 at 20:07

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