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1 when
when [wen]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adverb2. conjunction━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adverb• when does the term start? quand commence le trimestre ?• when did it happen? quand cela s'est-il passé ? ça s'est passé quand ?• when was the Channel Tunnel opened? quand a-t-on ouvert le tunnel sous la Manche ?• when's the wedding? quand a lieu le mariage ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► There is no inversion after quand in indirect questions.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• when does the train leave? à quelle heure part le train ?• when do you finish work? à quelle heure est-ce tu quittes le travail ?2. conjunctiona. ( = at the time that) quand━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► If the when clause refers to the future, the future tense is used in French.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• when you're older, you'll understand quand tu seras plus grand, tu comprendras━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► en + present participle may be used, if the subject of both clauses is the same, and the verb is one of action.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► when + noun/adjective• when a student at Oxford, she... quand elle était étudiante à Oxford, elle...• my father, when young, had a fine tenor voice quand mon père était jeune il avait une belle voix de ténorb. (with day, time, movement) où• there are times when I wish I'd never met him il y a des moments où je souhaiterais ne l'avoir jamais rencontréc. ( = which is when) he arrived at 8 o'clock, when traffic is at its peak il est arrivé à 8 heures, heure à laquelle la circulation est la plus intense• in August, when peaches are at their best en août, époque où les pêches sont les plus savoureusesd. ( = the time when) he told me about when you got lost in Paris il m'a raconté le jour où vous vous êtes perdu dans Parise. ( = after) quand• when he had made the decision, he felt better après avoir pris la décision, il s'est senti soulagéf. ( = whereas) alors que• he thought he was recovering, when in fact... il pensait qu'il était en voie de guérison alors qu'en fait...g. ( = if) how can I be self-confident when I look like this? comment veux-tu que j'aie confiance en moi en étant comme ça ?• how can you understand when you won't listen? comment voulez-vous comprendre si vous n'écoutez pas ?* * *[wen], US [hwen] 1.1) ( with prepositions) quandsince when? — depuis quand? also iron
2) ( the time when)2.that's when I was born — ( day) c'est le jour où je suis né; ( year) c'est l'année où je suis né
1) ( as interrogative) quand (est-ce que)I forget exactly when — ( time) j'ai oublié l'heure exacte; ( date) j'ai oublié la date exacte
tell me ou say when — ( pouring drink) dis-moi stop
2) ( as relative)at the time when — ( precise moment) au moment où; ( during same period) à l'époque où
one morning when he was getting up, he... — un matin en se levant, il...
3) ( then)she resigned in May, since when we've had no applicants — elle a démissionné en mai, et depuis (lors) nous n'avons reçu aucune candidature
4) ( whenever) quand3.when I sunbathe, I get freckles — chaque fois que je prends un bain de soleil, j'ai des taches de rousseur
1) ( at the precise time when) quand, lorsque2) ( during the period when) quand, lorsque3) ( as soon as) quand, dès queI was strolling along when all of a sudden... — je marchais tranquillement quand tout d'un coup...
4) ( when it is the case that) alors quewhy buy their products when ours are cheaper? — pourquoi acheter leurs produits alors que les nôtres sont moins chers?
5) ( whereas) alors que -
2 when
when [wen]quand ⇒ 1, 2 (a)-(g) lorsque ⇒ 2 (c) dès que ⇒ 2 (d) après que ⇒ 2 (d) chaque fois que ⇒ 2 (f) étant donné que ⇒ 2 (g) alors que ⇒ 2 (h) où ⇒ 3 (a), 3 (c)1 adverbquand;∎ when are we leaving? quand partons-nous?;∎ when is the next bus? à quelle heure est ou quand passe le prochain bus?;∎ when did the war end? quand la guerre s'est-elle terminée?;∎ when did the accident happen? quand l'accident a-t-il eu lieu?;∎ when was the Renaissance? à quand remonte l'époque de la Renaissance?;∎ when will the wedding be? à quand le mariage?;∎ when do you start your new job? quand commencez-vous votre nouveau travail?;∎ when do you use the subjunctive? quand emploie-t-on le subjonctif?;∎ you're open until when? vous êtes ouvert jusqu'à quand?;∎ when did you last see her? quand l'avez-vous vue pour la dernière fois?;∎ when do the Easter holidays begin? quand est-ce que commencent les vacances de Pâques?;∎ when is the best time to call? quel est le meilleur moment pour appeler?;∎ the homework is due when? quand doit-on rendre les devoirs?(a) (how soon) quand;∎ I don't know when we'll see you again je ne sais pas quand nous vous reverrons;∎ do you remember when we met? te souviens-tu du jour où nous nous sommes connus?;∎ do you know when he was born? savez-vous quand il est né?, connaissez-vous sa date de naissance?;∎ I wonder when the shop opens je me demande à quelle heure ouvre le magasin;∎ your contract states when you will be paid votre contrat spécifie quand vous serez payé;∎ we don't agree on when it should be done nous ne sommes pas d'accord sur le moment où il faudrait le faire(b) (at which time) quand;∎ come back next week when we'll have more time revenez la semaine prochaine quand nous aurons plus de temps;∎ he returned in the autumn, when the leaves were beginning to turn il est revenu à l'automne, alors que les feuilles commençaient à jaunir;∎ the prince will arrive on the 10th, when he will open the new university le prince arrivera le dix et inaugurera la nouvelle université(c) (indicating a specific point in time) quand, lorsque;∎ he turned round when she called his name il s'est retourné quand ou lorsqu'elle l'a appelé;∎ when she's gone, he's unhappy quand ou lorsqu'elle n'est pas là, il est malheureux;∎ when I was a student lorsque j'étais ou à l'époque où j'étais étudiant;∎ will you still love me when I'm old? m'aimeras-tu encore quand je serai vieux?;∎ she's only happy when she's writing elle n'est heureuse que lorsqu'elle écrit;∎ they were talking when he came in ils étaient en train de discuter quand il est entré;∎ she's thinner than when I last saw her elle a maigri depuis la dernière fois que je l'ai vue;∎ he left town when he was twenty il a quitté la ville quand il avait ou à l'âge de vingt ans;∎ when she was a child quand ou lorsqu'elle était enfant;∎ on Sunday, when I go to the market (this week) dimanche, quand j'irai au marché; (every week) le dimanche, quand je vais au marché;∎ I had just walked in the door/he was about to go to bed when the phone rang je venais juste d'arriver/il était sur le point de se coucher quand le téléphone a sonné;∎ we hadn't been gone five minutes when Susan wanted to go home ça ne faisait pas cinq minutes que nous étions partis et Susan voulait déjà rentrer∎ put your pencils down when you have finished posez votre crayon quand vous avez terminé;∎ when completed, the factory will employ 100 workers une fois terminée, l'usine emploiera 100 personnes;∎ when he starts drinking, he can't stop une fois qu'il a commencé à boire, il ne peut plus s'arrêter;∎ I'll answer any questions when the meeting is over quand la réunion sera terminée, je répondrai à toutes vos questions;∎ Cookery when cool, turn out onto a dish une fois refroidi, démouler sur un plat;∎ when I had read my report, she suggested we take a break après mon exposé, elle a suggéré qu'on fasse une pause;∎ when they had finished dinner, he offered to take her home quand ou après qu'ils eurent dîné, il lui proposa de la ramener;∎ when you see her you'll understand quand vous la verrez vous comprendrez;∎ when she had talked to him, she left après lui avoir parlé, elle est partie∎ remember when a coffee cost 10 cents? vous souvenez-vous de l'époque où un café coûtait 10 cents?;∎ he talked about when he was a soldier il parlait de l'époque où il était soldat;∎ that's when it snowed so hard c'est quand il a tant neigé;∎ that's when he got up and left c'est à ce moment-là ou c'est alors qu'il s'est levé et qu'il est parti;∎ that's when the shops close c'est l'heure où les magasins ferment;∎ figurative now is when we should stand up and be counted c'est le moment d'avoir le courage de nos opinions(f) (whenever) quand, chaque fois que;∎ when it's sunny, the children play outside quand il y a du soleil, les enfants jouent dehors;∎ when I hear that song, I think of her chaque fois que ou quand j'entends cette chanson, je pense à elle;∎ when I think of what she must have suffered! quand je pense à ce qu'elle a dû souffrir!;∎ I get very irritated when talking to her je m'énerve chaque fois que je lui parle;∎ I try to avoid seeing him when possible j'essaie de l'éviter quand c'est possible(g) (since, given that) quand, étant donné que;∎ what good is it applying when I don't qualify for the job? à quoi bon me porter candidat quand ou si je n'ai pas les capacités requises pour faire ce travail?;∎ how can you treat her so badly when you know she loves you? comment pouvez-vous la traiter si mal quand ou alors que vous savez qu'elle vous aime?;∎ why change jobs when you like what you do? pourquoi changer de travail quand ou puisque vous aimez ce que vous faites?;∎ fancy having soup when you could have had caviar! pourquoi manger de la soupe quand on peut manger du caviar?∎ she described him as being lax when in fact he's quite strict elle l'a décrit comme étant négligent alors qu'en réalité il est assez strict∎ an age when men were men une époque où les hommes étaient des hommes;∎ in a period when business was bad à une période où les affaires allaient mal;∎ she was president until 1980, when she left the company elle fut présidente jusqu'en 1980, année où elle a quitté l'entreprise∎ she started her job in May, since when she has had no free time elle a commencé à travailler en mai et elle n'a pas eu de temps libre depuis;∎ the new office will be ready in January, until when we use the old one le nouveau bureau sera prêt en janvier, jusque là ou en attendant, nous utiliserons l'ancien∎ do you remember the year when we went to Alaska? tu te rappelles l'année où on est allés en Alaska?;∎ what about the time when she didn't show up? et la fois où elle n'est pas venue?;∎ one day when he was out un jour où il était sorti ou qu'il était sorti;∎ it was only a minute later when he heard a scream à peine une minute plus tard, il entendait un cri;∎ on Monday, the day when I was supposed to start work lundi, le jour où je devais commencer à travailler;∎ it's one of those days when everything goes wrong c'est un de ces jours où tout va de travers;∎ there were times when she didn't know what to do il y avait des moments où elle ne savait plus quoi faire4 noun∎ the when and the how of it quand et comment cela s'est-il passé/se passera-t-il/ etc -
3 The human body
When it is clear who owns the part of the body mentioned, French tends to use the definite article where English uses a possessive adjective:he raised his hand= il a levé la mainshe closed her eyes= elle a fermé les yeuxshe ran her hand over my forehead= elle a passé la main sur mon frontFor expressions such as he hurt his foot or she hit her head on the beam, where the owner of the body part is the subject of the verb, i.e. the person doing the action, use a reflexive verb in French:she has broken her leg= elle s’est cassé la jambe( literally she has broken to herself the leg - there is no past participle agreement because the preceding reflexive pronoun se is the indirect object).he was rubbing his hands= il se frottait les mainsshe was holding her head= elle se tenait la têteNote also the following:she broke his leg= elle lui a cassé la jambe( literally she broke to him the leg)the stone split his lip= le caillou lui a fendu la lèvre( literally the stone split to him the lip)Describing peopleFor ways of saying how tall someone is ⇒ Length measurement ; of stating someone’s weight ⇒ Weight measurement ; and of talking about the colour of hair and eyes ⇒ Colours.Here are some ways of describing people in French:his hair is long= il a les cheveux longshe has long hair= il a les cheveux longsa boy with long hair= un garçon aux cheveux longsa long-haired boy= un garçon aux cheveux longsthe boy with long hair= le garçon aux cheveux longsher eyes are blue= elle a les yeux bleusshe has blue eyes= elle a les yeux bleusshe is blue-eyed= elle a les yeux bleusthe girl with blue eyes= la fille aux yeux bleusa blue-eyed girl= une fille aux yeux bleushis nose is red= il a le nez rougehe has a red nose= il a le nez rougea man with a red nose= un homme au nez rougea red-nosed man= un homme au nez rougeWhen referring to a temporary state, the following phrases are useful:his leg is broken= il a la jambe casséethe man with the broken leg= l’homme à la jambe casséebut notea man with a broken leg= un homme avec une jambe cassée -
4 them
them [ðem, ðəm]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When translating them it is necessary to know whether the French verb takes a direct or an indirect object. Verbs followed by à or de take an indirect object.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. (direct object: people and things) les━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► les precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• look at them! regarde-les !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When the French verb consists of avoir + past participle, les precedes the form of avoir. The participle always agrees, adding s for mpl, and es for fpl.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• have you seen my keys? I've lost them avez-vous vu mes clés ? je les ai perduesb. (indirect object: people) leur• what are you going to say to them? qu'est-ce que tu vas leur dire ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► leur precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━c. (indirect object: things)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When them refers to things, en is used when the pronoun replaces de + noun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• can you give me my notes back? I need them est-ce que tu peux me rendre mes notes ? j'en ai besoin• make sure you admire his pictures, he's very proud of them n'oublie pas d'admirer ses tableaux, il en est très fier• I knew it was them! je savais que c'était eux !• I know her but I don't know them je la connais, mais eux (or elles), je ne les connais pase. ► preposition + them• without them sans eux (or elles)• younger than them plus jeune qu'eux (or qu'elles)• my parents? I was just thinking about them mes parents ? je pensais justement à eux• the passports? I've not thought about them les passeports ? je n'y ai pas pensé━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• if anyone arrives early ask them to wait si quelqu'un arrive tôt, fais-le attendre• somebody rang -- did you ask them their name? quelqu'un a téléphoné -- est-ce que tu lui as demandé son nom ?* * *[ðem, ðəm]both of them — tous/toutes les deux
both of them work in London — ils/elles travaillent à Londres tous/toutes les deux
some of them — quelques-uns d'entre eux or quelques-unes d'entre elles
take them all — prenez-les tous/toutes
none of them wants it — aucun/-e d'entre eux/elles ne le veut
every single one of them — chacun/-e d'entre eux/elles
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5 nobody
nobody [ˈnəʊbədɪ]1. pronoun• who saw him? -- nobody qui l'a vu ? -- personne2. noun* * *When the pronoun nobody is the subject or object of a verb, the French requires ne before the verb (or auxiliary): nobody likes him = personne ne l'aime; I heard nobody = je n'ai entendu personneFor examples and particular usages, see the entry below['nəʊbədɪ] 1. 2.I knew her when she was still a nobody — je la connaissais alors qu'elle n'était encore qu'une inconnue
••to work like nobody's business — (colloq) GB travailler comme un fou/une folle
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6 nobody
❢ When nobody is used as a pronoun it is almost always translated by personne. When the pronoun nobody is the subject or object of a verb, the French requires ne before the verb (or auxiliary): nobody likes him = personne ne l'aime ; I heard nobody = je n'ai entendu personne. For examples and particular usages, see the entry below.A pron ( also no-one) personne ; ‘who's there?’-‘nobody’ ‘qui est là?’-‘personne’ ; nobody saw her personne ne l'a vue ; there was nobody in the car il n'y avait personne dans la voiture ; nobody but me personne sauf moi ; it's nobody's business but mine ça ne regarde personne d'autre que moi.B n to be a nobody être insignifiant ; they're just nobodies ils sont complètement insignifiants ; I knew her when she was still a nobody je la connaissais alors qu'elle n'était encore qu'une inconnue.to work like nobody's business ○ GB travailler comme un fou/une folle m/f ; he's nobody's fool on ne la lui fait pas ○. -
7 Usage note : her
When used as a direct object pronoun, her is translated by la (l’ before a vowel). Note that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French and that, in compound tenses like perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees with the pronoun:I know her= je la connaisI’ve already seen her= je l’ai déjà vueIn imperatives, the direct object pronoun is translated by la and comes after the verb:catch her!= attrape-la!(note the hyphen)I’ve given her the book= je lui ai donné le livreI’ve given it to her= je le lui ai donnéIn imperatives, the indirect object pronoun is translated by lui and comes after the verb:phone her= téléphone-luigive them to her= donne-les-lui(note the hyphens)he did it for her= il l’a fait pour elleit’s her= c’est elleWhen translating her as a determiner ( her house etc.) remember that in French possessive adjectives, like most other adjectives, agree in gender and number with the noun they qualify ; her is translated by son + masculine singular noun ( son chien), sa + feminine singular noun ( sa maison) BUT son + feminine noun beginning with a vowel or mute ‘h’ ( son assiette), and ses + plural noun ( ses enfants).For her used with parts of the body ⇒ The human body. -
8 Usage note : it
When it is used as a subject pronoun to refer to a specific object (or animal) il or elle is used in French according to the gender of the object referred to:‘where is the book/chair?’ ‘it’s in the kitchen’= ‘où est le livre/la chaise?’ ‘il/elle est dans la cuisine’‘do you like my skirt?’ ‘it’s lovely’= ‘est-ce que tu aimes ma jupe?’ ‘elle est très jolie’However, if the object referred to is named in the same sentence, it is translated by ce (c’ before a vowel):it’s a good film= c’est un bon filmWhen it is used as an object pronoun it is translated by le or la (l’ before a vowel) according to the gender of the object referred to:it’s my book/my chair and I want it= c’est mon livre/ma chaise et je le/la veuxNote that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the perfect and the past perfect, the past participle agrees with it:I liked his shirt - did you notice it?= j’ai aimé sa chemise - est-ce que tu l’as remarquée? or l’as-tu remarquée?In imperatives only, the pronoun comes after the verb:it’s my book - give it to me= c’est mon livre - donne-le-moi (note the hyphens)When it is used vaguely or impersonally followed by an adjective the translation is ce (c’ before a vowel):it’s difficult= c’est difficileit’s sad= c’est tristeBut when it is used impersonally followed by an adjective + verb the translation is il:it’s difficult to understand how…= il est difficile de comprendre comment …If in doubt consult the entry for the adjective in question.For translations for impersonal verb uses (it’s raining, it’s snowing) consult the entry for the verb in question.it is used in expressions of days of the week (it’s Friday) and clock time (it’s 5 o’clock). This dictionary contains usage notes on these and many other topics. For other impersonal and idiomatic uses see the entry it.When it is used after a preposition in English the two words (prep + it) are often translated by one word in French. If the preposition would normally be translated by de in French (e.g. of, about, from etc.) the prep + it = en:I’ve heard about it= j’en ai entendu parlerIf the preposition would normally be translated by à in French (e.g. to, in, at etc.) the prep + it = y:they went to it= ils y sont allésFor translations of it following prepositions not normally translated by de or à (e.g. above, under, over etc.) consult the entry for the preposition. -
9 Usage note : for
for my sister= pour ma sœurfor the garden= pour le jardinfor me= pour moiFor particular usages see the entry for.When for is used as a preposition indicating purpose followed by a verb it is translated by pour + infinitive:for cleaning windows= pour nettoyer les vitresWhen for is used in the construction to be + adjective + for + pronoun + infinitive the translation in French is être + indirect pronoun + adjective + de + infinitive:it’s impossible for me to stay= il m’est impossible de resterit was hard for him to understand that…= il lui était difficile de comprendre que…it will be difficult for her to accept the changes= il lui sera difficile d’accepter les changementsFor the construction to be waiting for sb to do see the entry wait.For particular usages see the entry for.In time expressionsfor is used in English after a verb in the progressive present perfect tense to express the time period of something that started in the past and is still going on. To express this French uses a verb in the present tense + depuis:I have been waiting for three hours (and I am still waiting)= j’attends depuis trois heureswe’ve been together for two years (and we’re still together)= nous sommes ensemble depuis deux ansWhen for is used in English after a verb in the past perfect tense, French uses the imperfect + depuis:I had been waiting for two hours (and was still waiting)= j’attendais depuis deux heuresfor is used in English negative sentences with the present perfect tense to express the time that has elapsed since something has happened. To express this, French uses the same tense as English (the perfect) + depuis:I haven’t seen him for ten years (and I still haven’t seen him)= je ne l’ai pas vu depuis dix ansIn spoken French, there is another way of expressing this: ça fait or il y a dix ans que je ne l’ai pas vu.When for is used in English in negative sentences after a verb in the past perfect tense, French uses the past perfect + depuis:I hadn’t seen him for ten years= je ne l’avais pas vu depuis dix ans, or (in spoken French) ça faisait or il y avait dix ans que je ne l’avais pas vufor is used in English after the preterite to express the time period of something that happened in the past and is no longer going on. Here French uses the present perfect + pendant:last Sunday I gardened for two hours= dimanche dernier, j’ai jardiné pendant deux heuresfor is used in English after the present progressive tense or the future tense to express an anticipated time period in the future. Here French uses the present or the future tense + pour:I’m going to Rome for six weeks= je vais à Rome pour six semainesI will go to Rome for six weeks= j’irai à Rome pour six semainesNote, however, that when the verb to be is used in the future with for to emphasize the period of time, French uses the future + pendant:I will be in Rome for six weeks= je serai à Rome pendant six semaineshe will be away for three days= il sera absent pendant trois joursFor particular usages see A13, 14, 15 and 16 in the entry for.for is often used in English to form a structure with nouns, adjectives and verbs (weakness for, eager for, apply for, fend for etc.). For translations, consult the appropriate noun, adjective or verb entry (weakness, eager, apply, fend etc.). -
10 Usage note : lot
When a lot is used as a pronoun (they buy a lot, he spends a lot), it is translated by beaucoup: ils achètent beaucoup, il dépense beaucoup. For particular usages, see A1 in the entry lot1.When a lot is used to mean much in negative expressions (they didn’t have a lot) it is translated by pas grand-chose: ils n’avaient pas grand-chose. For particular usages, see A1 in the entry lot1.When the lot is used as a pronoun ( they took the lot), it is usually translated by tout: ils ont tout pris. For particular usages, see A2 in the entry lot1.When a lot of is used as a quantifier ( a lot of money) it is translated by beaucoup de. For particular usages, see B1 in the entry lot1. -
11 Usage note : do
she’s doing her homework= elle fait ses devoirswhat are you doing?= qu’est-ce que tu fais?what has he done with the newspaper?= qu’est-ce qu’il a fait du journal?faire functions in very much the same way as to do does in English and it is safe to assume it will work in the great majority of cases. For the conjugation of the verb faire, see the French verb tables.Grammatical functionsIn questionsIn French there is no use of an auxiliary verb in questions equivalent to the use of do in English.When the subject is a pronoun, the question is formed in French either by inverting the subject and verb and putting a hyphen between the two ( veux-tu?) or by prefacing the subject + verb by est-ce que (literally is it that):do you like Mozart?= aimes-tu Mozart? or est-ce que tu aimes Mozart?did you put the glasses in the cupboard?= as-tu mis les verres dans le placard? or est-ce que tu as mis les verres dans le placard?When the subject is a noun there are again two possibilities:did your sister ring?= est-ce que ta sœur a téléphoné? or ta sœur a-t-elle téléphoné?did Max find his keys?= est-ce que Max a trouvé ses clés? or Max a-t-il trouvé ses clés?In negativesEqually, auxiliaries are not used in negatives in French:I don’t like Mozart= je n’aime pas Mozartyou didn’t feed the cat= tu n’as pas donné à manger au chatdon’t do that!= ne fais pas ça!In emphatic usesThere is no verbal equivalent for the use of do in such expressions as I DO like your dress. A French speaker will find another way, according to the context, of expressing the force of the English do. Here are a few useful examples:I DO like your dress= j’aime beaucoup ta robeI DO hope she remembers= j’espère qu’elle n’oubliera pasI DO think you should see a doctor= je crois vraiment que tu devrais voir un médecinWhen referring back to another verbIn this case the verb to do is not translated at all:I don’t like him any more than you do= je ne l’aime pas plus que toiI live in Oxford and so does Lily= j’habite à Oxford et Lily aussishe gets paid more than I do= elle est payée plus que moiI haven’t written as much as I ought to have done= je n’ai pas écrit autant que j’aurais dû‘I love strawberries’ ‘so do I’= ‘j’adore les fraises’ ‘moi aussi’In polite requestsIn polite requests the phrase je vous en prie can often be used to render the meaning of do:do sit down= asseyez-vous, je vous en priedo have a piece of cake= prenez un morceau de gâteau, je vous en prie‘may I take a peach?’ ‘yes, do’= ‘puis-je prendre une pêche?’ ‘je vous en prie’In imperativesIn French there is no use of an auxiliary verb in imperatives:don’t shut the door= ne ferme pas la portedon’t tell her anything= ne lui dis riendo be quiet!= tais-toi!In tag questionsFrench has no direct equivalent of tag questions like doesn’t he? or didn’t it? There is a general tag question n’est-ce pas? (literally isn’t it so?) which will work in many cases:you like fish, don’t you?= tu aimes le poisson, n’est-ce pas?he lives in London, doesn’t he?= il habite à Londres, n’est-ce pas?However, n’est-ce pas can very rarely be used for positive tag questions and some other way will be found to express the meaning contained in the tag: par hasard can often be useful as a translation:Lola didn’t phone, did she?= Lola n’a pas téléphoné par hasard?Paul doesn’t work here, does he?= Paul ne travaille pas ici par hasard?In many cases the tag is not translated at all and the speaker’s intonation will convey what is implied:you didn’t tidy your room, did you? (i.e. you ought to have done)= tu n’as pas rangé ta chambre?In short answersAgain, there is no direct French equivalent for short answers like yes I do, no he doesn’t etc. Where the answer yes is given to contradict a negative question or statement, the most useful translation is si:‘Marion didn’t say that’ ‘yes she did’= ‘Marion n’a pas dit ça’ ‘si’‘they don’t sell vegetables at the baker’s’ ‘yes they do’= ‘ils ne vendent pas les légumes à la boulangerie’ ‘si’In response to a standard enquiry the tag will not be translated:‘do you like strawberries?’ ‘yes I do’= ‘aimez-vous les fraises?’ ‘oui ’For more examples and particular usages, see the entry do. -
12 myself
1) (used as the object of a verb or preposition when the speaker or writer is the object of an action he or she performs: I cut myself while shaving; I looked at myself in the mirror.) me, moi2) (used to emphasize I, me or the name of the speaker or writer: I myself can't tell you, but my friend will; I don't intend to go myself.) moi-même -
13 ourselves
1) (used as the object of a verb when the person speaking and other people are the object of an action etc they perform: We saw ourselves in the mirror.) nous2) (used to emphasize we, us or the names of the speaker and other people performing an action etc: We ourselves played no part in this.) nous-mêmes3) (without help etc: We'll just have to finish the job ourselves.) nous-mêmes, tout seuls -
14 what
what [wɒt]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adjective2. pronoun3. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adjective• what time is it? quelle heure est-il ?• what flavours do you want? quels parfums voulez-vous ?• what subjects did you choose? quelles matières as-tu choisies ?b. ( = all the) I gave him what money I had je lui ai donné tout l'argent que j'avais• I will give you what information we have je vais vous donner toutes les informations dont nous disposonsc. (exclamations) what a nice surprise! quelle bonne surprise !• what a ridiculous suggestion! quelle suggestion ridicule !• what a nightmare! quel cauchemar !• what a nuisance! quelle barbe ! (inf)• what a lot of people! que de monde !• what lovely hair you've got! quels jolis cheveux tu as !2. pronouna. (used alone, or in emphatic position) quoi• what? I didn't get that quoi ? je n'ai pas compris• I've forgotten something -- what? j'ai oublié quelque chose -- quoi ?• he's getting married -- what! il se marie -- quoi !• what! you expect me to believe that! quoi ! et tu penses que je vais croire ça !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► quoi is used with a preposition, if the French verb requires one.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I've just thought of something -- what? je viens de penser à quelque chose -- à quoi ?• I've just remembered something -- what? je viens de me souvenir de quelque chose -- de quoi ?• what's happened? qu'est-ce qui s'est passé ?• what's bothering you? qu'est-ce qui te préoccupe ?• what's for dinner? qu'est-ce qu'il y a pour dîner ?• what is his address? quelle est son adresse ?• what's the French for "pen"? comment dit-on « pen » en français ?• what is this called? comment ça s'appelle ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When asking for a definition or explanation, c'est quoi is often used in spoken French.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what are capers? c'est quoi, les câpres ?• what's that noise? c'est quoi, ce bruit ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The object pronoun que is more formal than qu'est-ce que and requires inversion of verb and pronoun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what did you do? qu'avez-vous fait ?• what can we do? qu'est-ce qu'on peut faire ? que peut-on faire ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The French preposition cannot be separated from the pronoun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what does he owe his success to? à quoi doit-il son succès ?• what were you talking about? de quoi parliez-vous ?• what's the best time to call? quel est le meilleur moment pour vous joindre ?• what are the advantages? quels sont les avantages ?e. ( = how much) combien• what will it cost? ça va coûter combien ?• what does it weigh? ça pèse combien ?• what do 2 and 2 make? combien font 2 et 2 ?• what does it matter? qu'est-ce que ça peut bien faire ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━g. (in relative clauses) ( = that which) (subject of verb) ce qui ; (object of verb) ce que ; (object of verb taking "de") ce dont ; (object of verb taking "à") ce à quoi• what I don't understand is... ce que je ne comprends pas c'est...• what I need is... ce dont j'ai besoin c'est...━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When what means the ones which, the French pronoun is generally plural.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► and what...are you coming or what? tu viens ou quoi ? (inf)tell you what, let's stay here another day j'ai une idée: si on restait un jour de plus ?► what about• what about people who haven't got cars? et les gens qui n'ont pas de voiture ?• what about going to the cinema? si on allait au cinéma ?► what for? pourquoi ?• what did you do that for? pourquoi avez-vous fait ça ?• what if this doesn't work out? et si ça ne marchait pas ?• what if he says no? et s'il refuse ?► what of• but what of the country's political leaders? et les dirigeants politiques du pays ?• I've done this job long enough to know what's what je fais ce travail depuis assez longtemps pour savoir de quoi il retourne► what with• what with the stress and lack of sleep, I was in a terrible state entre le stress et le manque de sommeil, j'étais dans un état lamentable3. compounds* * *[wɒt], US [hwɒt] 1.1) ( what exactly) ( as subject) qu'est-ce qui; ( as object) que, qu'est-ce que; ( with prepositions) quoiwhat for? — ( why) pourquoi?; ( concerning what) à propos de quoi?
what's this called in Flemish? —
2) ( in rhetorical questions)what's the use? — ( enquiringly) à quoi bon?; ( exasperatedly) à quoi ça sert?
3) ( whatever)4) ( in clauses) ( as subject) ce qui; ( as object) ce que, (before vowel) ce qu'this is what is called a ‘monocle’ — c'est ce qu'on appelle un ‘monocle’
and what's worse ou better — et en plus
5) (colloq) ( when guessing)it'll cost, what, £50 — ça coutera, quoi, dans les 50 livres?
6) ( inviting repetition)2.what's that? —
1) ( which) quel/quelle/quels/quelles2) ( in exclamations) quel/quellewhat use is that? — lit, fig à quoi ça sert?
3) ( the amount of)what money he earns he spends — tout ce qu'il gagne, il le dépense
3.what little she has — le peu qu'elle a, tout ce qu'elle a
what about prepositional phrase1) ( when drawing attention)what about the letter they sent? — et la lettre qu'ils ont envoyée, alors?
2) ( when making suggestion)3) ( in reply)4.‘what about your sister?’ - ‘what about her?’ — ‘et ta sœur?’ - ‘quoi ma sœur?’
what if prepositional phrase et si5.what with prepositional phrase6.exclamation quoi!, comment!••to give somebody what for — (colloq) GB passer un savon (colloq) à quelqu'un
well, what do you know — iron tout arrive
what do you think I am! — (colloq) tu me prends pour quoi!
what's it to you? — (colloq) en quoi ça vous regarde?
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15 him
him [hɪm]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► le precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• look at him! regardez-le !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Some French verbs take an indirect object. This means they are either followed by à + noun, or require an indirect pronoun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► lui precedes the verb, except in positive commands.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what are you going to say to him? qu'est-ce que tu vas lui dire ?c. (emphatic) luid. ► preposition + him lui* * *[hɪm]Note: When used as a direct object pronoun, him is translated by le (l' before a vowel). Note that the object pronoun normally comes before the verb in French: I know him = je le connais; I've already seen him = je l'ai déjà vuIn imperatives, the direct object pronoun is translated by le and comes after the verb: catch him! = attrape-le! (note the hyphen)When used as an indirect object pronoun, him is translated by lui: I've given him the book = je lui ai donné le livre; I've given it to him = je le lui ai donnéIn imperatives, the indirect object pronoun is translated by lui and comes after the verb: phone him! = téléphone-lui!; give it to him = donne-le-lui (note the hyphens)After prepositions and after the verb to be the translation is lui: she did it for him = elle l'a fait pour lui; it's him = c'est lui1) ( direct object) le, l'2) (indirect object, after prep) lui -
16 that
that [ðæt, ðət]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━4. conjunction5. adverb━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━(plural those)• what about that £20 I lent you? et ces 20 livres que je t'ai prêtées ?b. (stressed, or as opposed to this, these) ce...-là, cet...-là cette...-là, ces...-là• but that Saturday... mais ce samedi-là...• which video do you want? -- that one quelle vidéo veux-tu ? -- celle-là• of all his records, I like that one best de tous ses disques, c'est celui-là que je préfère• the only blankets we have are those ones there les seules couvertures que nous ayons sont celles-là• there's little to choose between this model and that one il n'y a pas grande différence entre ce modèle-ci et l'autre► that much━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• what's that? qu'est-ce que c'est que ça ?• do you like that? vous aimez cela ?• that's enough! ça suffit !• that's fine! c'est parfait !• that is (to say)... c'est-à-dire...• is that you Paul? c'est toi Paul ?• this is the opposite of that which the government claims to have done c'est le contraire de ce que le gouvernement prétend avoir fait• those over there ceux-là (or celles-là) là-bas• are those our seats? est-ce que ce sont nos places ?• those are nice sandals elles sont belles, ces sandales• the true cost often differs from that which is first projected le coût réel est souvent différent de celui qui était prévu à l'origine► those which ( = the ones which) ceux qui mpl celles qui fpl• there are those who say... certains disent...► at that!• and there were six of them at that! et en plus ils étaient six !► by that• what do you mean by that? qu'est-ce que vous voulez dire par là ?► that's it ( = the job's finished) ça y est ; ( = that's what I mean) c'est ça ; ( = that's all) c'est tout ; ( = I've had enough) ça suffit• sorry, I wasn't listening -- that's just it, you never listen! désolé, je n'écoutais pas -- c'est bien le problème, tu n'écoutes jamais !► so that's that alors c'est ça• so that's that then, you're leaving? alors c'est ça, tu t'en vas ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• the man that she was dancing with l'homme avec lequel or avec qui elle dansait• the children that I spoke to les enfants auxquels or à qui j'ai parlé━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► dont is used when the French verb takes de.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• the girl/the book that I told you about la jeune fille/le livre dont je vous ai parlé4. conjunction• he was speaking so softly that I could hardly hear him il parlait si bas que je l'entendais à peine━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► que cannot be omitted in a second clause if it has a different subject.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• he said that he was very busy and his secretary would deal with it il a dit qu'il était très occupé et que sa secrétaire s'en occuperait• it's an attractive investment in that it is tax-free c'est un investissement intéressant dans la mesure où il est exonéré d'impôts► not that non (pas) que5. adverba. ( = so) si• it's not that important/bad ce n'est pas si important/mal (que ça)• when I found it I was that relieved! lorsque je l'ai trouvé, je me suis senti tellement soulagé !* * *1. [ðæt, ðət]determiner (pl those) ce/cet/cette/ces2. [ðæt]that chair/that man over there — cette chaise/cet homme là-bas
1) ( that one) celui-/celle-/ceux-/celles-là2) ( the thing or person observed or mentioned) cela, ça, cewho's that? — gen qui est-ce?; ( on phone) qui est à l'appareil?
before that, he had always lived in London — avant cela, il avait toujours vécu à Londres
3) ( before relative pronoun)3. [ðət]those who... — ceux qui...
relative pronoun ( subject) qui; ( object) que; ( with preposition) lequel/laquelle/lesquels/lesquelles4. [ðət]1) gen que2) ( expressing wish)5. [ðæt]oh that he would come — s'il pouvait venir; ( expressing surprise)
••...and (all) that —...et tout ça
...and he's very nice at that! —...et en plus il est très gentil!
I might well go at that! — en fait, je pourrais bien y aller!
at that, he got up and left — en entendant cela, il s'est levé et est parti
that is (to say)... — c'est-à-dire...
that's it! — ( that's right) c'est ça!; ( that's enough) ça suffit!
well, that's it then! — il n'y a rien de plus à faire!
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17 Usage note : which
In questionsWhen which is used as a pronoun in questions it is translated by lequel, laquelle, lesquels or lesquelles according to the gender and number of the noun it is referring to:there are three peaches, which do you want?= il y a trois pêches, laquelle veux-tu?‘Lucy’s borrowed three of your books’ ‘which did she take?’= ‘Lucy t’a emprunté trois livres’ ‘lesquels a-t-elle pris?’The exception to this is when which is followed by a superlative adjective, when the translation is quel, quelle, quels or quelles:which is the biggest (apple)?= quelle est la plus grande?which are the least expensive (books)?= quels sont les moins chers?In relative clauses as subject or objectthe book which is on the table= le livre qui est sur la tablethe books which are on the table= les livres qui sont sur la tablethe book which Tina is reading= le livre que lit TinaNote the inversion of subject and verb ; this is the case where the subject is a noun but not where the subject is a pronoun:the book which I am reading= le livre que je lisIn compound tenses such as the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the noun que is referring to:the books which I gave you= les livres que je t’ai donnésthe dresses which she bought yesterday= les robes qu’elle a achetées hierIn relative clauses after a prepositionHere the translation is lequel, laquelle, lesquels or lesquelles according to the gender and number of the noun referred to:the road by which we came or the road which we came by= la route par laquelle nous sommes venusthe expressions for which we have translations= les expressions pour lesquelles nous avons une traductionRemember that if the preposition would normally be translated by à in French (to, at etc.), the preposition + which is translated by auquel, à laquelle, auxquels or auxquelles:the addresses to which we sent letters= les adresses auxquelles nous avons envoyé des lettresWith prepositions normally translated by de (of, from etc.) the translation of the preposition which becomes dont:a blue book, the title of which I’ve forgotten= un livre bleu dont j’ai oublié le titreHowever, if de is part of a prepositional group, as for example in the case of près de meaning near, the translation becomes duquel, de laquelle, desquels or desquelles:the village near which they live= le village près duquel ils habitentthe houses near which she was waiting= les maisons près desquelles elle attendaita hill at the top of which there is a house= une colline au sommet de laquelle il y a une maisonAs a determinerIn questionsWhen which is used as a determiner in questions it is translated by quel, quelle, quels or quelles according to the gender and number of the noun that follows:which car is yours?= quelle voiture est la vôtre?which books did he borrow?= quels livres a-t-il empruntés?Note that in the second example the object precedes the verb so that the past participle agrees in gender and number with the object. -
18 least
least [li:st]1. adjective2. pronoun• what's the least you are willing to accept? quel prix minimum êtes-vous prêt à accepter ?• it costs $5 at least cela coûte au moins 5 dollars• you could at least have told me! tu aurais pu au moins me le dire !• he's ill, at least that's what he says il est malade, du moins c'est ce qu'il dit► at the very least du moins• not in the least! pas du tout !• I was annoyed, to say the least j'étais mécontent, c'est le moins qu'on puisse dire• she was not very careful, to say the least elle était pour le moins imprudente3. adverb• nobody seemed amused, least of all John cela ne semblait amuser personne et surtout pas John► not least• all countries, not least the USA tous les pays, et en particulier les USA• not least because... notamment parce que...* * *Note: When the least is used as a quantifier followed by a noun to mean the smallest quantity of it is translated by le moins de: to have the least food = avoir le moins de nourritureBut when the least is used as a quantifier to mean the slightest it is translated by le or la moindre: I haven't the least idea = je n'en ai pas la moindre idéeFor translations of least as a pronoun or adverb see II and III belowThe phrase at least is usually translated by au moinsFor the phrase in the least see V below[liːst] 1.(superlative of little) quantifier(the) least — (le) moins de; ( in negative constructions) (le or la) moindre
2.they have the least food — ce sont eux qui ont le moins de nourriture or le moins à manger
pronoun le moins3.she was surprised, to say the least (of it) — le moins qu'on puisse dire, c'est qu'elle était surprise
1) ( with adjective or noun)the least — le/la moins; ( with plural noun) les moins
2) ( with verbs) le moins inv4.nobody liked it, John least of all ou least of all John — personne ne l'aimait, John encore moins que les autres
he's gone to bed - at least I think so — il est allé se coucher - du moins, je pense
5.such people are at the very least guilty of negligence — de telles personnes sont au moins coupables de négligence
in the least adverbial phraseI'm not worried in the least —
I'm not hungry in the least —
••last but not least —
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19 to
to [tu:, tə]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition2. adverb3. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When to is the second element in a phrasal verb, eg apply to, set to, look up the verb. When to is part of a set combination, eg nice to, of help to, look up the adjective or noun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. (direction, movement) à━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► to it ( = there) y• I liked the exhibition, I went to it twice j'ai aimé l'exposition, j'y suis allé deux foisb. ( = towards) versc. (home, workplace) chez► to + feminine country/area en• to England/France en Angleterre/France• to Brittany/Provence en Bretagne/Provence• to Sicily/Crete en Sicile/Crète• to Louisiana/Virginia en Louisiane/Virginie━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► en is also used with masculine countries beginning with a vowel.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• to Iran/Israel en Iran/Israël► to + masculine country/area au• to Japan/Kuwait au Japon/Koweït• to the Sahara/Kashmir au Sahara/Cachemire► to + plural country/group of islands aux• to the United States/the West Indies aux États-Unis/Antilles► to + town/island without article à• to London/Lyons à Londres/Lyon• to Cuba/Malta à Cuba/Malte• is this the road to Newcastle? est-ce que c'est la route de Newcastle ?• it is 90km to Paris ( = from here to) nous sommes à 90 km de Paris ; ( = from there to) c'est à 90 km de Paris• planes to Heathrow les vols mpl à destination de Heathrow► to + masculine state/region/county dans• to Texas/Ontario dans le Texas/l'Ontario• to Sussex/Yorkshire dans le Sussex/le Yorkshire━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► dans is also used with many départements.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• to the Drôme/the Var dans la Drôme/le Vare. ( = up to) jusqu'àf. ► to + person (indirect object) à━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When a relative clause ends with to, a different word order is required in French.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When translating to + pronoun, look up the pronoun. The translation depends on whether it is stressed or unstressed.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━h. (in ratios) he got a big majority (twenty votes to seven) il a été élu à une large majorité (vingt voix contre sept)i. ( = concerning) that's all there is to it ( = it's easy) ce n'est pas plus difficile que ça• you're not going, and that's all there is to it ( = that's definite) tu n'iras pas, un point c'est toutj. ( = of) de━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► A preposition may be required with the French infinitive, depending on what precedes it: look up the verb or adjective.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The French verb may take a clause, rather than the infinitive.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• well, to sum up... alors, pour résumer...• we are writing to inform you... nous vous écrivons pour vous informer que...━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► to is not translated when it stands for the infinitive.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• he'd like me to come, but I don't want to il voudrait que je vienne mais je ne veux pas• yes, I'd love to oui, volontiers2. adverb( = shut) to push the door to pousser la porte3. compounds(plural to-dos)• he made a great to-do about lending me the car il a fait toute une histoire pour me prêter la voiture ► to-ing and fro-ing noun allées et venues fpl* * *1. [tə], devant une voyelle [tʊ, tuː], emphatique [tuː]1) ( expressing purpose) pour2) ( linking consecutive acts)he looked up to see... — en levant les yeux, il a vu...
3) ( after superlatives) àthe youngest to do — le or la plus jeune à faire
‘did you go?’ - ‘no I promised not to’ — ‘tu y es allé?’ - ‘non j'avais promis de ne pas le faire’
‘are you staying? ’ - ‘I want to but...’ — ‘tu restes?’ - ‘j'aimerais bien mais...’
it is difficult to do something — il est difficile de faire quelque chose; ( expressing wish)
2.oh to be able to stay in bed! — hum ô pouvoir rester au lit!
1) ( in direction of) à [shops, school]; ( with purpose of visiting) chez [doctor's, dentist's]; ( towards) vers2) ( up to) jusqu'àto the end/this day — jusqu'à la fin/ce jour
3) ( in telling time)4) ( introducing direct or indirect object) [give, offer] àto me/my daughter it's just a minor problem — pour moi/ma fille ce n'est qu'un problème mineur
5) (in toasts, dedications) àto prosperity — à la prospérité; ( on tombstone)
6) ( in accordance with)7) (in relationships, comparisons)8) ( showing accuracy)9) ( showing reason)10) ( belonging to) depersonal assistant to the director — assistant/-e m/f du directeur
11) ( on to) [tied] à; [pinned] à [noticeboard etc]; sur [lapel, dress]12) ( showing reaction) à3. [tuː]to his surprise/dismay — à sa grande surprise/consternation
••that's all there is to it — ( it's easy) c'est aussi simple que ça; ( not for further discussion) un point c'est tout
what a to-do! — (colloq) quelle histoire! (colloq)
what's it to you? — (colloq) qu'est-ce que ça peut te faire?
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20 enough
enough [ɪˈnʌf]1. adjective• enough's enough! ça suffit comme ça !• enough of this! ça suffit comme ça !2. adverba. ( = sufficiently) assez• are you warm enough? avez-vous assez chaud ?b. ( = tolerably) assezc. (intensifying) funnily enough, I saw him too c'est curieux, moi aussi je l'ai vu* * *[ɪ'nʌf]Note: When enough is used as an adverb or a pronoun, it is most frequently translated by assez: is the house big enough? = est-ce que la maison est assez grande? (Note that assez comes before the adjective); will there be enough? = est-ce qu'il y en aura assez? (Note that if the sentence does not specify what it is enough of, the pronoun en, meaning of it/of them, must be added before the verb in French.)When used as a determiner, enough is generally translated by assez de: we haven't bought enough meat = nous n'avons pas acheté assez de viande; there's enough meat for two meals/six people = il y a assez de viande pour deux repas/six personnes; have you got enough chairs? = avez-vous assez de chaises?For more examples and particular usages, see the entry belowadverb, determiner, pronoun assezquite big enough — bien assez grand ( for pour; to do pour faire)
just wide enough — juste assez large ( for pour; to do pour faire)
enough money/seats — assez d'argent/de sièges
there's more than enough for everybody — il y en a plus qu'assez or largement assez pour tout le monde
curiously enough, I like her — aussi bizarre que cela puisse paraître, je l'aime bien
and sure enough...! — et ça n'a pas manqué...!
••enough is as good as a feast — Prov ≈ il ne faut pas abuser des bonnes choses
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