I'm nearing graduation and I just want to know what would the equivalent of saying, "Aaaah so close!" in French would be? "À proche de" would be weird, right? In Spanish I'd say, "¡ya mero!"
4 Answers
I imagine you mean "aaah so close !" as an expression of disappointment and/or frustation when you have missed something by a very short margin (eg shooting near the goal in a football match). Then some common spontaneous phrasings in French would be:
Presque !
J'y étais presque !
ça y était presque !
Depending on the actual circumstances, you can imagine other expressions, more in line with the context. Eg in a the example of the football match and the missed goal, you could think of à côté !.
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1I would add J'y suis presque ! because in the question, there is no evidence a failure is implicit.– jlliagreCommented Jan 6, 2021 at 17:27
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Yes indeed; in fact, the answer as written is wrong because the OP is looking to a future event, not a past one.– Luke Sawczak ♦Commented Jan 6, 2021 at 19:51
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@LukeSawczak The answer is right, it just slightly misses the question ;-)– jlliagreCommented Jan 7, 2021 at 3:19
You should specify what you mean exactly but I gather you're referring to getting very close to completing your term/studies with that:
(Je suis) si près du but ! [(I'm) so close to the objective/goal]
Ça achève (Québec) (ou approche)/c'est presque terminé (ou fini) ! [it is "ending" or drawing near i.e. it's almost over or "finished"]
(C'est) la dernière ligne droite/le dernier droit (Québec). [reference to the (it's the) home stretch or sprint is not unusual]
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1I believe "ça achève" and "c'est le dernier droit" are typically Quebec phrasings - not wrong obviously, but it would not be easily understood outside of French Canada. In that context, a typical French-French phrase (but also understood at least in Belgium) would be "c'est bientôt la quille" (a reference to a tradition linked to the end of service in the French army).– GregCommented Jan 6, 2021 at 7:22
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@Greg Merci, je ne connaissais pas cette expression avec la quille ! Commented Jan 6, 2021 at 7:31
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@Greg I think that "la dernière ligne droite" is also understood in France and Belgium.– radouxjuCommented Jan 6, 2021 at 7:39
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@radouxju: yes, no doubt about "la dernière ligne droite" - but my point is that "le dernier droit" would not be understood outside of French-speaking Canada..– GregCommented Jan 6, 2021 at 8:32
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Il y a aussi "pas loin" et ses dérivés :
- on n'était pas loin [du but]
- c'était pas loin (style oral relâché)
- Pas loin! (interjection)
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"Pas loin!" is definitely the one who comes to my (french) mind first.– Ouch42Commented Jan 7, 2021 at 10:52
Une autre expression valable serait "à un cheveu de ...", plutôt dans le sens "c'est raté de si peu" que dans le sens "c'est presque terminé". C'est surtout utilisé dans des phrases complètes, par exemple
C'est passé à un cheveu! Il s'en est fallu d'un cheveu!
Pour faire plus court, "presque" ou "quasi" peuvent s'utiliser (presque étant le plus courant d'après ce que j'entends).
