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

  • Hah, you've caught the eco-friendly bug or what!

My intention in saying this is to say that I was surprised to see someone who always purchases luxury cars having bought an environmentally-friendly car all of a sudden. I have no clue how I should say 'caught the eco-friendly bug.'

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  • I corrected the answer on the following grounds; let's put the sentence apart: My intention -- of saying this -- is -- that I was surprised... Your intention IS NOT that you are surprised, "to be surprised" cannot be an intention; your intention is to EXPRESS or SAY that you are surprised; moreover, the form you are using is not "the intention OF doing something", there is no form associated with your use of the word "intention" and you are using "intention" alone; therefore "of saying this " is wrong;(continued)
    – LPH
    Aug 29, 2018 at 16:33
  • that complement is introduced always by "in". The French is similar: Mon intention en disant cela est de faire entendre que j'étais surpris de voir etc. My first correction which was essentially the same was correct, I shouldn't lose a point.
    – LPH
    Aug 29, 2018 at 16:35
  • Une curiosité c'est qu'au Québec on a le calque avec attraper/avoir la « piqûre », de l'insecte...
    – user3177
    Aug 29, 2018 at 20:55

3 Answers 3

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I think there are various ways of conveying the surprise and the term.

Je vois que tu t'es mis à l'écologie

Je vois que tu as attrapé la fibre écologique

Je vois que tu as attrapé le virus écologique (using Con-gras-tue-les-chiens' answer)

As stated in the other answer, ecologique could be replaced by ecolo, conveying a slightly pejorative or mocking tone (and in Wallonia - Belgium - Ecolo is also the name of the "eco-friendly" political party)

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  • I think the exact translation for eco-friedly would be écoresponsable. But yeah, écolo is what i would've used too in that case :)
    – Flying_whale
    Aug 28, 2018 at 13:38
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Qu'est-ce que tu as attrapé le virus écologique !

Or if you want to add a pejorative nuance to the tone of your phrasing:

Qu'est-ce que tu as attrapé le virus écolo!

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  • 3
    Pourquoi ajouter qu'est-ce que au début de la phrase? Cette tournure ne me semble pas correcte
    – Flying_whale
    Aug 28, 2018 at 13:17
  • @Flying_whale Tout comme « Qu'est-ce que tu as grandi ! ». :)
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Aug 28, 2018 at 13:31
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    Well in this specific case it doesn't quite work that well but I must admit I can't put my finger on the grammatical reason. If you really want to use that beginning of sentence, a correct one would be "Qu'est-ce que tu es écolo !"
    – Laurent S.
    Aug 28, 2018 at 13:34
  • @Con-gras-tue-les-chiens oui, cet exemple précis ne me choque pas, mais les deux phrases de ta réponses, si. Je ne sais pas pourquoi par contre :p
    – Flying_whale
    Aug 28, 2018 at 13:36
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    @Flying_whale I believe the sentence doesn't fly because Qu'est-ce que in exclamative sentences is a colloquial comme or que (Comme tu as grandi ! / Que tu as grandi !) and provides a notion of intensity (= Tu as beaucoup grandi !). On the other hand, while beaucoup attraper is usable in some contexts (Qu'est ce que tu as attrapé comme poissons !), it is hard to assign an intensity to attraper le virus écologique which is a true/false statement, just like we would never say Qu'est-ce que tu as grandi de dix centimètres !...
    – jlliagre
    Aug 28, 2018 at 14:20
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Possible supplementary options (more or less jocular according to case)

  • Je vois que tu es devenue dingue d'écologie!

  • Mais tu es un(e) mordu(e) d'écologie!

  • Alors tu es un(e) convaincu(e) de l'écologie?

  • Eh bien! Tu ne vois plus que par écologie!

  • Serait-tu devenu(e) un(e) fanatique d'écologie?

  • On dirait que tu t'es mis(e) au cent pour cent écologique!

  • Tu n'as plus que l'écologie dans la tête!

Other forms of a similar style can be found, it's just a matter of taking the time to rake one's mind for them.

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