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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 each
each [i:t∫]1. adjective• each one of us chacun (e) de nous2. pronoun• the bags are $12 each les sacs coûtent 12 dollars chaque━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► French reflexive verbs are often used to translate verbs + each other.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━* * *Note: When used as a determiner each is translated by chaque when an object or person is singled out: each document was examined = chaque document a été examiné. Tout/toute and tous les/toutes les are also used to express each and every: each passport must be checked = chaque passeport or tout passeport doit être contrôléWhen used as a pronoun each (= each one) is almost always translated by chacun/chacune. For examples and exceptions see below[iːtʃ] 1.determiner [person, group, object] chaque inveach morning — chaque matin, tous les matins
each person will receive — chaque personne or tout le monde recevra
2.he lifted each box in turn, each one heavier than the last — il soulevait des boîtes de plus en plus lourdes
pronoun chacun/-e m/feach of you — chacun de vous, chacun d'entre vous
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3 each
❢ When used as a determiner each is translated by chaque when an object or person is singled out: each document was examined = chaque document a été examiné. Tout/toute and tous les/toutes les are also used to express each and every: each passport must be checked = chaque passeport or tout passeport doit être contrôlé. When used as a pronoun each (= each one) is almost always translated by chacun/chacune. For examples and exceptions see below.A det [person, group, object] chaque inv ; each time I/you do chaque fois que je/tu fais ; each morning chaque matin, tous les matins ; each person will receive chaque personne or tout le monde recevra ; each and every day tous les jours sans exception ; ( exasperatedly) tous les jours que Dieu fait ○ ; he lifted each box in turn, each one heavier than the last il soulevait des boîtes de plus en plus lourdes.B pron chacun/-e m/f ; each will receive chacun recevra ; we each want something different chacun de nous veut une chose différente ; each of you/of them etc chacun de vous/d'eux etc, chacun d'entre vous/d'entre eux etc ; three bundles of ten notes each trois liasses de dix billets chacune ; each is equally desirable ( of two) les deux sont également souhaitables ; ( of several) tous/toutes sont également souhaitables ; I'll try a little of each je prendrais bien un peu de chaque ; oranges at 30p each des oranges à 30 pence pièce. -
4 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. -
5 Usage note : them
When used as a direct object pronoun, referring to people, animals or things, them is translated by les:I know them= je les connaisNote that the object pronoun normallycomes before the verb in French and that in compound tenses like the present perfect and past perfect, the past participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object pronoun:He’s seen them( them being masculine or of mixed gender)= il les a vus( them being all feminine gender)= il les a vuesIn imperatives, the direct object pronoun is translated by les and comes after the verb:catch them!= attrape-les! (note the hyphen)I gave them it or I gave it to them= je le leur ai donnéIn imperatives, the indirect object pronoun is translated by leur and comes after the verb:phone them!= téléphone-leur! (note the hyphen)After prepositions and the verb to be, the translation is eux for masculine or mixed gender and elles for feminine gender:he did it for them= il l’a fait pour eux or pour ellesit’s them= ce sont eux or ce sont ellesFor particular usages see the entry them. -
6 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. -
7 Usage note : less
When less is used as a quantifier ( less money) it is translated by moins de: moins d’argent. For examples and particular usages, see A in the entry less.When less is used as a pronoun ( you should have taken less), it is translated by moins: tu aurais dû en prendre moins.less than is usually translated by moins que and even less by encore moins. For examples and particular usages of these see B in the entry less.When less is used as an adverb followed by a verb, an adjective, or another adverb (to eat less, less interesting, less often) it is translated by moins: manger moins, moins intéressant, moins souvent. For examples and particular usages see C in the entry less.For the phrase less and less see E in the entry less. -
8 little
I.little1 [ˈlɪtl]II.little2 [ˈlɪtl]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adjective2. pronoun3. adverb━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adjective( = not much) peu de► a little... ( = some) un peu de...• would you like a little milk in your tea? voulez-vous un peu de lait dans votre thé ?• we're having a little trouble nous avons un petit problème► no little...2. pronouna. ( = not much) pas grand-chose• that has very little to do with it! ça n'a pas grand-chose à voir !• however little you give, we'll be grateful votre contribution, même la plus modeste, sera la bienvenueb. ( = small amount) the little I have seen is excellent le peu que j'en ai vu est excellent• every little helps ( = gift) tous les dons sont les bienvenus3. adverba. ( = not much) they spoke very little on the way home ils n'ont pas dit grand-chose sur le chemin du retour► a little... ( = somewhat) un peu...b. ( = not at all) he little imagined that... il était loin de s'imaginer que...• little did he think that... il était loin de se douter que...c. ( = rarely) rarement• you could get one for as little as £20 on peut en trouver pour seulement 20 livres• you can eat well for as little as $5 on peut bien manger pour 5 dollars• I like him as little as you do je ne l'aime pas plus que toi► little by little petit à petit peu à peu► to make little of sth ( = accomplish easily) faire qch sans aucun mal ; ( = play down) minimiser qch ; ( = underestimate) sous-estimer qch• the sailors made little of loading the huge boxes les marins chargeaient les énormes caisses sans aucun mal• he made little of his opportunities ( = failed to exploit) il n'a pas tiré parti des possibilités qu'il avait► to say little for sb ( = reflect badly on)* * *Note: When little is used as a quantifier ( little hope, little damage) it is translated by peu de: peu d'espoir, peu de dégâtsWhen a little is used as a pronoun ( give me a little) it is translated by un peu: donne-m'en un peuWhen little is used alone as a pronoun ( there's little I can do) it is very often translated by pas grand-chose: je ne peux pas faire grand-choseFor examples of these and other uses of little as a pronoun ( to do as little as possible etc) see II belowFor uses of little and a little as adverbs see the entry belowI 1. ['lɪtl](comparative less; superlative least) quantifier2. 3.too little money — trop peu or pas assez d'argent
1) ( not much) peu2) ( not at all)4.a little (bit) adverbial phrase ( slightly) un peu5.a little less/more — un peu moins/plus
as little as adverbial phraseII ['lɪtl]as little as £60 — juste 60 livres sterling
1) ( small) [house, smile, voice] petit (before n)poor little thing — pauvre petit/-e m/f
2) ( young) [sister, boy] petit (before n)3) ( in a small way) [farmer, businessman] petit (before n)4) ( expressing scorn)5) ( short) [snooze] petit (before n)••to make little of — ( not understand) ne pas comprendre grand-chose à [speech]
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9 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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10 Usage note : that
In French, determiners agree in gender and number with the noun they precede ; that is translated by ce + masculine singular noun ( ce monsieur), cet + masculine singular noun beginning with a vowel or mute ‘h’ ( cet homme) and cette + feminine singular noun ( cette femme) ; those is translated by ces.Note, however, that the above translations are also used for the English this (plural these). So when it is necessary to insist on that as opposed to another or others of the same sort, the adverbial tag -là is added to the noun:I prefer THAT version= je préfère cette version-làFor particular usages, see the entry that.As a pronoun meaning that one, those onesIn French, pronouns reflect the gender and number of the noun they are referring to. So that is translated by celui-là for a masculine noun, celle-là for a feminine noun and those is translated by ceux-là for a masculine noun and celles-là for a feminine noun:I think I like that one (dress) best= je crois que je préfère celle-làFor other uses of that, those as pronouns (e.g. who’s that?) and for adverbial use (e.g. that much, that many) there is no straightforward translation, so see the entry that for examples of usage.When used as a relative pronoun, that is translated by qui when it is the subject of the verb and by que when it is the object:the man that stole the car= l’homme qui a volé la voiturethe film that I saw= le film que j’ai vuRemember that in the present perfect and past perfect tenses, the past participle will agreewith the noun to which que as object refers:the apples that I bought= les pommes que j’ai achetéesWhen that is used as a relative pronoun with a preposition, it is translated by lequel when standing for a masculine singular noun, by laquelle when standing for a feminine singular noun, by lesquels when standing for a masculine plural noun and by lesquelles when standing for a feminine plural noun:the chair that I was sitting on= la chaise sur laquelle j’étais assisethe children that I bought the books for= les enfants pour lesquels j’ai acheté les livresRemember that in cases where the English preposition used would normally be translated by à in French (e.g. to, at), the translation of the whole (prep + rel pron) will be auquel, à laquelle, auxquels, auxquelles:the girls that I was talking to= les filles auxquelles je parlaisSimilarly, where the English preposition used would normally be translated by de in French (e.g. of, from), the translation of the whole (prep + rel pron) will be dont in all cases:the Frenchman that I received a letter from= le Français dont j’ai reçu une lettreWhen used as a conjunction, that can almost always be translated by que (qu’ before a vowel or mute ‘h’):she said that she would do it= elle a dit qu’elle le ferait -
11 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. -
12 much
much [mʌt∫]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. pronoun2. adjective3. adverb━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. pronoun• does it cost much? est-ce que ça coûte cher ?• is it worth much? est-ce que ça a de la valeur ?► much of ( = a large part of) une bonne partie de• much of what you say une bonne partie de ce que vous dites► to make much of sth attacher beaucoup d'importance à qch► not/nothing... much ( = a small amount) pas beaucoup• what was stolen? -- nothing much qu'est-ce qui a été volé ? -- pas grand-chose━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Constructions with valoir are often used when assessing value or merit.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• there isn't much in it (in choice, competition) ça se vaut2. adjective• it's a bit much! (inf) c'est un peu fort !3. adverba. ( = to a great degree) beaucoup• I very much hope that... j'espère de tout cœur que...b. ( = more or less) it's much the same c'est quasiment la même chose► as much• I thought as much! c'est bien ce que je pensais !• as much time as... autant de temps que...• twice as much money as... deux fois plus d'argent que...• you could pay as much as $200 for that ça peut te coûter jusqu'à 200 dollars► however much• however much you like him... quelle que soit votre affection pour lui,...► how much? combien ?• how much does it cost? combien ça coûte ?► much as• much as I dislike doing this,... bien que je n'aime pas du tout faire cela,...► much less ( = and even less)he couldn't understand the question, much less answer it il ne pouvait pas comprendre la question et encore moins y répondre► not much of a (inf) ( = not a great)• he'd drunk so much that... il avait tellement bu que...• so much so that... à tel point que...• so much for his help! c'est ça qu'il appelle aider !• so much for that! tant pis !• so much the better! tant mieux !► not so much... as• I think of her not so much as a doctor but as a friend je la considère plus comme une amie que comme un médecin► this/that much• this much? (ça ira) comme ça ?• I know this much... ce que je sais, c'est que...• this much is certain... un point est acquis...* * *Note: When much is used as an adverb, it is translated by beaucoup: it's much longer = c'est beaucoup plus long; she doesn't talk much = elle ne parle pas beaucoupFor particular usages, see I belowWhen much is used as a pronoun, it is usually translated by beaucoup: there is much to learn = il y a beaucoup à apprendre. However, in negative sentences grand-chose is also used: I didn't learn much = je n'ai pas beaucoup appris or je n'ai pas appris grand-choseWhen much is used as a quantifier, it is translated by beaucoup de: they don't have much money = ils n'ont pas beaucoup d'argent[mʌtʃ] 1.1) ( to a considerable degree) beaucoup2) ( often) beaucoup, souvent3) ( nearly) plus ou moins, à peu prèsvery much — ( a lot) beaucoup; ( absolutely) tout à fait
I thought as much — ça ne m'étonne pas, je m'en doutais
you'll have to accept the decision however much you disagree — il va falloir que tu acceptes la décision même si tu n'es pas d'accord
5) (emphatic: setting up a contrast)2.the discovery wasn't so much shocking as depressing — la découverte était moins choquante que déprimante
1) ( a great deal) beaucoup; ( in negative sentences) grand-chosemuch of the difficulty lies in... — une grande partie de la difficulté réside dans...
to make much of something — ( focus on) insister sur quelque chose; ( understand) comprendre quelque chose
2) (expressing a relative amount, degree)so much — tellement, tant
so much of the time, it's a question of patience — la plupart du temps c'est une question de patience
it's too much! — lit c'est trop!; ( in protest) c'en est trop!
I'll say this much for him, he's honest — il a au moins ça pour lui, il est honnête
this much is certain, we'll have no choice — une chose est certaine, nous n'aurons pas le choix
it can cost as much as £50 — ça peut coûter jusqu'à 50 livres sterling
as much as to say... — d'un air de dire...
do you know how much this means to me? — est-ce que tu sais à quel point or combien c'est important pour moi?
3) (focusing on limitations, inadequacy)it's not ou nothing much — ce n'est pas grand-chose
it's not up to much — GB ça ne vaut pas grand-chose
3.I'm not much of a one for cooking — (colloq) la cuisine ce n'est pas mon fort (colloq)
quantifier beaucoup de4.much+ combining form5.much-loved/-respected — très apprécié/respecté
much as conjunctional phrase bien que (+ subj)6.much as we regret our decision we have no choice — bien que nous regrettions or nous avons beau regretter notre décision, nous n'avons pas le choix
much less conjunctional phrase encore moins7.I've never seen him much less spoken to him — je n'ai jamais eu l'occasion de le voir encore moins de lui parler
so much as adverbial phrasewithout so much as saying goodbye/as an apology — sans même dire au revoir/s'excuser
••there isn't much in GB ou to US it — (in contest, competition) ils se suivent de près
there isn't much in it for us — ( to our advantage) ça ne va pas nous apporter grand-chose
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13 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 -
14 some
some [sʌm]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adjective2. pronoun3. adverb━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. adjective• some tea/ice cream/water du thé/de la glace/de l'eau• would you like some more meat? voulez-vous encore un peu de viande ?b. ( = a certain number of) des━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► de is sometimes used before an adjective.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━d. ( = a certain) if you are worried about some aspect of this proposal... si un aspect quelconque de cette proposition vous préoccupe...• in some ways, he's right par certains côtés, il a raison• some people say that... il y a des gens qui disent que...f. ( = a considerable amount of) it took some courage to do that! il a fallu du courage pour faire ça !g. ( = a limited) this will give you some idea of... cela vous donnera une petite idée de...• that's some consolation! c'est quand même une consolation !• surely there's some hope she will recover? il y a tout de même quelque espoir qu'elle guérisse ?2. pronouna. ( = as opposed to others) certain(e)s m(f)pl• some cheered, others shouted abuse certains applaudissaient, d'autres criaient des injures━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note the use of d'entre with personal pronouns.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━b. ( = not all) quelques-un(e)s m(f)pl• I don't want them all, but I'd like some je ne les veux pas tous mais j'en voudrais quelques-uns━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Even if not expressed, of them must be translated in French by en.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━c. ( = a certain amount or number when object of the verb) en• have some! prenez-en !• do you need stamps? -- it's okay, I've got some est-ce que tu as besoin de timbres ? -- non, ça va, j'en aid. ( = a part) une partie► ... and then some (inf)3. adverba. ( = about) environb. ( = a bit) (inf)* * *Note: When some is used as a quantifier to mean an unspecified amount of something, it is translated by du, de l' before vowel or mute h, de la or des according to the gender and number of the noun that follows: I'd like some bread = je voudrais du pain; have some water = prenez de l'eau; we've bought some beer = nous avons acheté de la bière; they've bought some peaches = ils ont acheté des pêchesBut note that where some is followed by an adjective preceding a plural noun, de alone is used in all cases: some pretty dresses = de jolies robesWhen some is used as a pronoun it is translated by en which is placed before the verb in French: would you like some? = est-ce que vous en voulez?; I've got some = j'en ai[sʌm] 1.determiner, quantifier2) (certain: in contrast to others) certainsin some ways, I agree — d'une certaine façon, je suis d'accord
4) (a little, a slight)the candidate needs to have some knowledge of computers — le candidat doit avoir certaines or un minimum de connaissances en informatique
you must have some idea where the house is — tu dois avoir une idée de l'endroit où la maison se trouve
this money will go some way towards compensating her for her injuries — cet argent compensera un peu ses blessures
5) péj (an unspecified, unknown)a car of some sort —
6) (colloq) ( a remarkable)that's some woman ou man! — c'est quelqu'un!
7) (colloq) ( not much)some help you are! — iron c'est ça que tu appelles aider!
2.‘I'd like the work to be finished by Monday’ - ‘some hope!’ — ‘j'aimerais que le travail soit fini avant lundi’ - ‘tu rêves (colloq)!’
2) (certain ones: in contrast to others)3.1) ( approximately) environsome £50 — autour de 50 livres sterling
2) (colloq) US ( a lot) un peufrom here to the town center in 5 minutes, that's going some — (colloq) aller d'ici au centre ville en 5 minutes, il faut le faire
••some people! — ah vraiment, il y a des gens!
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15 few
few [fju:]a. ( = not many) peu (de)• there are always the few who think that... il y a toujours la minorité qui croit que...• how many? -- quite a few combien ? -- pas mal (inf)• too few of them realize that... trop peu d'entre eux sont conscients que...* * *Note: When few is used as a quantifier to indicate the smallness or insufficiency of a given number or quantity ( few houses, few people, few shops) it is translated by peu de: peu de maisons, peu de gens, peu de magasins. Equally the few is translated by le peu de: the few people who knew her le peu de gens qui la connaissaient. For examples and particular usages see I 1 in the entryWhen few is used as a quantifier in certain expressions to mean several, translations vary according to the expression: see I 2 in the entryWhen a few is used as a quantifier ( a few books), it can often be translated by quelques: quelques livres; however, for expressions such as quite a few books, a good few books, see II in the entryFor translations of few used as a pronoun ( few of us succeeded, I only need a few) see II, III in the entryFor translations of the few used as a noun ( the few who voted for him) see III in the entry[fjuː] 1.(comparative fewer; superlative fewest) quantifier1) ( not many) peu defew visitors/letters — peu de visiteurs/lettres
2) (some, several)2.over the next few days/weeks — ( in past) dans les jours/semaines qui ont suivi; ( in future) dans les jours/semaines à venir
a few quantifier, pronoun quelquesa few people/houses — quelques personnes/maisons
I would like a few more — j'en voudrais quelques-uns/quelques-unes de plus
quite a few people/houses — pas mal (colloq) de gens/maisons, un bon nombre de personnes/maisons
a few of the soldiers/countries — quelques-uns or certains des soldats/pays
there were only a few of them — il n'y en avait que quelques-uns/quelques-unes
3.quite a few ou a good few of the tourists come from Germany — un bon nombre des touristes viennent d'Allemagne
••to have had a few (too many) — (colloq) avoir bu quelques verres (de trop)
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16 Usage note : what
In questionsAfter que the verb and subject are inverted and a hyphen is placed between them:what is he doing?= que fait-il? or qu’est-ce qu’il fait?When used in questions as a subject pronoun, what is translated by qu’est-ce qui:what happened?= qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?Used with a prepositionAfter a preposition the translation is quoi.Unlike in English, the preposition must always be placed immediately before quoi:with what did she cut it? or what did she cut it with?= avec quoi l’a-t-elle coupé?To introduce a clauseWhen used to introduce a clause as the object of the verb, what is translated by ce que (ce qu’ before a vowel):I don’t know what he wants= je ne sais pas ce qu’il veuttell me what happened= raconte-moi ce qui s’est passéFor particular usages see A in the entry what.As a determinerwhat used as a determiner is translated by quel, quelle, quels or quelles according to the gender and number of the noun that follows:what train did you catch?= quel train as-tu pris?what books do you like?= quels livres aimes-tu?what colours do you like?= quelles couleurs aimes-tu?For particular usages see B in the entry what. -
17 another
another [əˈnʌðər]1. adjectivea. ( = one more) un... de plus, encore un• I won't wait another minute! je n'attendrai pas une minute de plus !• another beer? vous reprendrez bien une bière ?• and another thing... (inf) ( = what's more) et autre chose...b. ( = different) un autre2. pronoun* * *Note: When another is used as a determiner it is translated by un autre or une autre according to the gender of the noun that follows: another ticket = un autre billet; another cup = une autre tasse. However, when another means an additional, encore can also be used: another cup of tea? = une autre tasse de thé or encore une tasse de thé? For more examples and particular usages, see I belowWhen another is used as a pronoun it is translated by un autre or une autre according to the gender of the noun it refers to: that cake was delicious, can I have another? = ce gâteau était délicieux, est-ce que je peux en prendre un autre?; I see you like the peaches - have another = je vois que tu aimes les pêches - prends-en une autre. Note that en is always added in French when un/une autre are used as pronouns. For more examples and particular usages, see II below[ə'nʌðə(r)] 1.1) ( an additional) un/-e autre, encore un/-ewould you like another drink? — est-ce que tu veux un autre verre?, encore un verre?
that will cost you another £5 — cela vous coûtera 5 livres sterling de plus
it was another ten years before they met again — dix ans se sont écoulés avant qu'ils se rencontrent de nouveau
and another thing,... — et de plus,...
2) ( a different) un/-e autreto put it another way... — en d'autres termes...
that's quite another matter — ça c'est une autre histoire or question
3) ( new)2.pronoun un/-e autrecan I have another? — est-ce que je peux en avoir un/-e autre?
one after another — l'un/l'une après l'autre
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18 any
any [ˈenɪ]1. adjectivea.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The construction not... any is generally translated in French by pas... de.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━b. (in questions and "if" clauses) have you got any butter? avez-vous du beurre ?• did they find any survivors? ont-ils trouvé des survivants ?• are there any others? y en a-t-il d'autres ?• is there any risk? y a-t-il un risque ?c. ( = no matter which) n'importe quel ; ( = each and every) tout• you can come at any hour of the day or night vous pouvez venir à toute heure du jour ou de la nuit2. pronouna. (with negative) she has two brothers but I haven't got any elle a deux frères mais moi je n'en ai pas• a lot of people booked but hardly any came beaucoup de gens avaient réservé, mais presque personne n'est venub. (in questions and "if" clauses) have you got any? en avez-vous ?• few, if any, will come il viendra peu de gens, si tant est qu'il en viennec. ( = no matter which one) any of those books will do n'importe lequel de ces livres fera l'affaire3. adverba. ► any + comparative• are you feeling any better? vous sentez-vous un peu mieux ?• if it had been any colder we'd have frozen to death si la température avait encore baissé, nous serions morts de froid• do you want any more soup? voulez-vous encore de la soupe ?• I couldn't do that any more than I could fly je ne serais pas plus capable de faire cela que de volerb. ► not any + comparative* * *Note: When any is used as a determiner in negative sentences it is not usually translated in French: we don't have any money = nous n'avons pas d'argentWhen any is used as a determiner in questions it is translated by du, de l', de la or des according to the gender and number of the noun that follows: is there any soap? = y a-t-il du savon?; is there any flour? = y a-t-il de la farine?; are there any questions? = est-ce qu'il y a des questions?When any is used as a pronoun in negative sentences and in questions it is translated by en: we don't have any = nous n'en avons pas; have you got any? = est-ce que vous en avez?For adverbial uses such as any more, any longer, any better etc see III below['enɪ] 1.1) (with negative, implied negative)2) (in questions, conditional sentences)3) ( no matter which) n'importe quel/quelle, toutany complaints should be addressed to Mr Cook — pour toute réclamation adressez-vous à M. Cook
I do not wish to restrict your freedom in any way — je n'ai pas l'intention d'entraver votre liberté de quelque façon que ce soit
2.if you should want to discuss this at any time — si à un moment ou à un autre vous souhaitez discuter de cela
1) (with negative, implied negative)she doesn't like any of them — ( people) elle n'aime aucun d'entre eux/elles; ( things) elle n'en aime aucun/-e
2) (in questions, conditional sentences)I'd like some tea, if you have any — je voudrais du thé, si vous en avez
have any of you got a car? — est-ce que l'un/-e d'entre vous a une voiture?
3) ( no matter which) n'importe lequel/laquelle‘which colour would you like?’ - ‘any’ — ‘quelle couleur veux-tu?’ - ‘n'importe laquelle’
3.any of them could do it — n'importe qui d'entre eux/elles pourrait le faire
1) ( with comparatives)he doesn't live here any more ou longer — il n'habite plus ici
2) (colloq) ( at all) du tout -
19 itself
itself [ɪtˈself]a.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When used emphatically, itself is translated lui-même if the noun it refers to is masculine, and elle-même if the noun is feminine.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• the mere will to cooperate is by itself not sufficient la simple volonté de coopérer n'est pas suffisante en soi► in itself en soi• just reaching the semifinals has been an achievement in itself arriver en demi-finale a déjà été un exploit en soic. (reflexive) se* * *[ɪt'self]Note: When used as a reflexive pronoun, direct and indirect, itself is translated by se (s' before a vowel or mute h): the cat hurt itself = le chat s'est fait mal; a problem presented itself = un problème s'est présentéWhen used for emphasis itself is translated by lui-même when standing for a masculine noun and elle-même when standing for a feminine noun: the car itself was not damaged = la voiture elle-même n'était pas endommagéeFor uses with prepositions ( by itself etc) see 3 below1) ( refl) se, s'2) ( emphatic) lui-même/elle-mêmein the university itself — dans l'université même or dans l'université elle-même
he was kindness itself — c'était la bonté même or personnifiée
3) ( after prepositions) -
20 ourselves
ourselves [‚aʊəˈselvz]a. (reflexive) nousb. (after prep) nousd. ( = us) nous* * *[aʊə'selvz, ɑː-]Note: When used as a reflexive pronoun, direct and indirect, ourselves is translated by nous in standard French: we've hurt ourselves = nous nous sommes fait mal. However, if the more informal on is used to translate we, the translation of ourselves will be se (or s' before a vowel): on s'est fait malWhen used as an emphatic the translation is nous-mêmes: we did it ourselves = nous l'avons fait nous-mêmesWhen used after a preposition ourselves is translated by nous or nous-mêmes1) ( refl) nous2) ( emphatic) nous-mêmes3) ( after prep)for ourselves — pour nous, pour nous-mêmes
(all) by ourselves — tout seuls/toutes seules
См. также в других словарях:
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