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In the French language, I'm searching for a natural way to say,

  • I did think Dan and Mary were a perfect couple, but they each realized their feelings only after each getting married to a different partner.

and I'm having difficulty in how I should say the two each. Is using chacun twice natural French? Here's my try,

  • Je pensais vraiment que Dan et Mary étaient un couple idéal. Mais ils se sont chacun rendus compte de leur sentiment seulement après ils s'étaient chacun mariés.

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While your phrasing is perfectly understandable, there’s room for improvement to make it sound more idiomatic. How about:

Moi qui pensais que Dan et Marie formaient un couple de rêve. Mais ils n’ont réalisé leurs sentiments l’un pour l’autre qu’après s’être mariés chacun de leur côté.

I'd avoid repeating the word "chacun":

In place of the 1st "chacun", I'd use "l’un pour l’autre", as the idea of "leurs sentiments (pour who/what?)" is lacking in your version.

As for the 2nd "chacun", I'd substitute "chacun de leur côté", thereby emphasising the idea that each of them ended up getting married "to a different partner".


As an aside: You can also say "ils étaient faits l’un pour l’autre" to express the idea of "a perfect couple". But to avoid repeating the phrase "l’un pour l’autre", I'd go for "ils formaient un couple de rêve" or "ils faisaient un couple bien assorti".

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  • +1 sauf pour le ", ils" devant formaient à éviter.
    – MC68020
    Aug 10, 2018 at 16:01
  • @cong-gras-tue-les-chiens : Pour répondre à ta question qui... OUPS! a disparue! : faire est comme to do, to make... un peu passe-partout. Il pourrait donc très bien aller ici en place de former. faire un couple est attesté dans la littérature moderne, quoique, rare. Former est préférable dans la mesure où l'entité couple est abstraite. Faire imposerait un objet plus concret.
    – MC68020
    Aug 10, 2018 at 16:53
  • @aCOSwt Hi. On second thoughts, didn't want to cut in on the OP's question so I deleted the comment. Thanks! :) I wasn't sure if there would be a distintion to be made between the two. Aug 10, 2018 at 20:32
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French usually don't like repetition so using twice chacun is probably not the best solution. You can use the formulation "tous les deux" or "tous deux", which better translate in english to "both". If there were three people, "each" would translate to "tous les trois" (ou "tous trois").

Note : "tous deux" and "tous trois" are uncommon, mostly seen in litterature.

Cheers, K.

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"Each" can have 2 differents meaning in French:

  • "Chacun" as you said
  • "Tout les deux" or "Tous deux"

So in your sentence, the first translate of each is appropriate, but for the second, you should use "tous deux", so the sentence will be :

Je pensais vraiment que Dan et Mary formaient un couple idéal. Mais ils se sont chacun rendu compte de leur sentiment seulement après qu'ils s'étaient tous deux mariés.

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