How can I translate correctly the phrase:
I have my family help
?
My doubt is: Do I have to translate it as:
J'ai la aidé de mon famille
?
I don't understand how I should conjugate the verb aider.
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1/I have my family help/ is not good English. You are writing a sentence in poor English and then asking for translation into French? This is a fool's errand. You need to get to French through your native language, not through English. Or you will run into big problems.– LambieCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 17:38
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1@Lambie, looking at your posts becomes clear that you are not a kind person. I am so sorry if I have a poor english and an even worst french. I can assure you I am doing my best to improve my skills. The way I asked this was intended to sound most properly as we speak on my mother tongue. I think that probably you were at some point a student. I would expect you not encouraging the other members to does not answer bad formulated questions, but encourage them to help me to improve my questions, in order to get an appropriate answer. Please, try to be nice.– L.F. CavenaghiCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 19:45
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1OK! I do appreciate this. The point is that you encouraged people to don't answer me, instead of to say how I could improve. I can assure you I will do my best on the next posts. Thank you.– L.F. CavenaghiCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 21:02
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1No, I am saying it doesn't seem fair to me to help you with French through English. Do you think it is fair (giusto, juste, justo)? Because, first we have to correct your English and only then can we help you with your French. How can we possibly be expected to guess your mother tongue and then help you with French, from English? That's nuts. If you are Italian, there are sites for learning French. And if you are Spanish speaking, there are also sites for learning French.– LambieCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 21:10
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2So, it is not that I am not a kind person. On the contrary, I am the only one here giving you sound (good) advice. Why? Because having learned two other languages to a very high level besides my native language, I know every single difficulty one encounters in doing so.– LambieCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 21:12
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2 Answers
I think you want (allowing myself to slightly correct your sentence to: I have my family's help / I have the help of my family):
J'ai l'aide de ma famille.
But that doesn't sound very natural. Before we look at alternatives, if the English sentence you used is accurate, it would IMHO be, roughly:
Je vais faire en sorte que ma famille m'aide.
For a more natural-sounding sentence corresponding to the first meaning, you could say:
Ma famille m'aide.
Which is: My family helps/is helping me.
Or (more natural):
Ma famille va m'aider.
My family is going to help me.
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this is precisely what I am looking for. I am yet trying to understand the formulation of phrases in french! This helps. Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 1:08
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@Frank The English sentence is wrong. Personally, I would not encourage questions about French from poorly written English from a Spanish or Itailian speaker (it would seem). This can lead to a lot of confusion. And fyi, we would probably say: I have my family's help.– LambieCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 17:40
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2Not that it matters (or proves anything), but I’d use “the help of my family.” Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 18:06
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I corrected to allow for some slack in OP's English, offering two possible interpretations.– FrankCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 18:34
In English, "I have my family help" makes sense to me but doesn't mean the same as "I have my family's help". The latter would be translated by the French that Frank gave:
J'ai l'aide de ma famille.
But the former doesn't quite mean that. It means "I make my family help", "I get my family to help", or perhaps more politely "I ask my family to help" (compare this article). Note that who exactly is being helped is not specified — it could be "me" but that's reading into it a little. Some possible translations for this sense:
J'ai ma famille qui aide (or qui m'aide -- not spelled out in the English sentence)
Je fais aider ma famille (or Je me fais aider par ma famille)
Je fais en sorte que ma famille aide (or m'aide)
Note that the English sentence is in a somewhat informal tone because it omits what they're helping with. An example of its use might be:
How do you manage to answer all your fan mail?
Oh, I have my family help. (Je fais en sorte que ma famille m'aide.)
Just as good a response would be:
Oh, I have my family's help. (J'ai l'aide de ma famille.)
On the other hand, if you meant "I have my family's help" or other related sentences then Frank's answer works.
answered Feb 21, 2017 at 4:53
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Yes, I noticed the nuance in English. I should update my response.– FrankCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 4:55
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Indeed — though it's not a question of nuance, but denotation. (Incidentally, neither "I have my family help" nor "I have my family's help" implies the other!)– Luke Sawczak ♦Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 5:04
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But in English - I would mayben not have used a present tense. Maybe instead: "I will have my family help".– FrankCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 5:05
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1This is very simple. The OP asked a question that is in fact an English error: he meant: I have my family's help. The fact is that Luke is responding to: I have my family help [when I do some thing]. It's perfectly grammatical but I bet you any amount of money, the OP meant the latter and not the former.– LambieCommented Feb 21, 2017 at 21:02
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1I certainly appreciate in hindsight that Leonardo meant something other than my interpretation, and I'll edit my answer accordingly. But I disagree that it's not discernible. At least in my variety of English, one uses similar formulations all the time, so without any more context than just the line there was no reason to think it was a mistake instead of something encountered in the wild!– Luke Sawczak ♦Commented Feb 21, 2017 at 23:57