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1 Usage note : be
I am tired= je suis fatiguéCaroline is French= Caroline est françaisethe children are in the garden= les enfants sont dans le jardinIt functions in very much the same way as to be does in English and it is safe to assume it will work as a translation in the great majority of cases.Note, however, that when you are specifying a person’s profession or trade, a/an is not translated:she’s a doctor= elle est médecinClaudie is still a student= Claudie est toujours étudianteThis is true of any noun used in apposition when the subject is a person:he’s a widower= il est veufButLyons is a beautiful city= Lyon est une belle villeFor more information or expressions involving professions and trades consult the usage note Shops, Trades and Professions.For the conjugation of the verb être see the French verb tables.Grammatical functionsThe passiveêtre is used to form the passive in French just as to be is used in English. Note, however, that the past participle agrees in gender and number with the subject:the rabbit was killed by a fox= le lapin a été tué par un renardthe window had been broken= la fenêtre avait été casséetheir books will be sold= leurs livres seront vendusour doors have been repainted red= nos portes ont été repeintes en rougeIn spoken language, French native speakers find the passive cumbersome and will avoid it where possible by using the impersonal on where a person or people are clearly involved : on a repeint nos portes en rouge.Progressive tensesIn French the idea of something happening over a period of time cannot be expressed using the verb être in the way that to be is used as an auxiliary verb in English.The presentFrench uses simply the present tense where English uses the progressive form with to be:I am working= je travailleBen is reading a book= Ben lit un livreIn order to accentuate duration être en train de is used: je suis en train de travailler ; Ben est en train de lire un livre.The futureFrench also uses the present tense where English uses the progressive form with to be:we are going to London tomorrow= nous allons à Londres demainI’m (just) coming!= j’arrive!I’m (just) going!= j’y vais!The pastTo express the distinction between she read a newspaper and she was reading a newspaper French uses the perfect and the imperfect tenses: elle a lu un journal/elle lisait un journal:he wrote to his mother= il a écrit à sa mèrehe was writing to his mother= il écrivait à sa mèreHowever, in order to accentuate the notion of describing an activity which went on over a period of time, the phrase être en train de (= to be in the process of) is often used:‘what was he doing when you arrived?’‘he was cooking the dinner’= ‘qu’est-ce qu’il faisait quand tu es arrivé?’ ‘il était en train de préparer le dîner’she was just finishing her essay when …= elle était juste en train de finir sa dissertation quand …The compound pastCompound past tenses in the progressive form in English are generally translated by the imperfect in French:I’ve been looking for you= je te cherchaisFor progressive forms + for and since (I’ve been waiting for an hour, I had been waiting for an hour, I’ve been waiting since Monday etc.) see the entries for and since.ObligationWhen to be is used as an auxiliary verb with another verb in the infinitive ( to be to do) expressing obligation, a fixed arrangement or destiny, devoir is used:she’s to do it at once= elle doit le faire tout de suitewhat am I to do?= qu’est-ce que je dois faire?he was to arrive last Monday= il devait arriver lundi derniershe was never to see him again= elle ne devait plus le revoir.In tag questionsFrench has no direct equivalent of tag questions like isn’t he? or wasn’t it? There is a general tag question n’est-ce pas? (literally isn’t it so?) which will work in many cases:their house is lovely, isn’t it?= leur maison est très belle, n’est-ce pas?he’s a doctor, isn’t he?= il est médecin, n’est-ce pas?it was a very good meal, wasn’t it?= c’était un très bon repas, 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 extra meaning contained in the tag: par hasard ( by any chance) can be very useful as a translation:‘I can’t find my glasses’ ‘they’re not in the kitchen, are they?’= ‘je ne trouve pas mes lunettes’ ‘elles ne sont pas dans la cuisine, par hasard?’you haven’t seen Gaby, have you?= tu n’as pas vu Gaby, par hasard?In cases where an opinion is being sought, si? meaning more or less or is it? or was it? etc. can be useful:it’s not broken, is it?= ce n’est pas cassé, si?he wasn’t serious, was he?= il n’était pas sérieux, si?In many other cases the tag question is simply not translated at all and the speaker’s intonation will convey the implied question.In short answersAgain, there is no direct equivalent for short answers like yes I am, no he’s not etc. Where the answer yes is given to contradict a negative question or statement, the most useful translation is si:‘you’re not going out tonight’ ‘yes I am’= ‘tu ne sors pas ce soir’ ‘si’In reply to a standard enquiry the tag will not be translated:‘are you a doctor?’ ‘yes I am’= ‘êtes-vous médecin?’ ‘oui’‘was it raining?’ ‘yes it was’= ‘est-ce qu’il pleuvait?’ ‘oui’ProbabilityFor expressions of probability and supposition ( if I were you etc.) see the entry be.Other functionsExpressing sensations and feelingsIn expressing physical and mental sensations, the verb used in French is avoir:to be cold= avoir froidto be hot= avoir chaudI’m cold= j’ai froidto be thirsty= avoir soifto be hungry= avoir faimto be ashamed= avoir hontemy hands are cold= j’ai froid aux mainsIf, however, you are in doubt as to which verb to use in such expressions, you should consult the entry for the appropriate adjective.Discussing health and how people areIn expressions of health and polite enquiries about how people are, aller is used:how are you?= comment allez-vous?( more informally) comment vas-tu?( very informally as a greeting) ça va?are you well?= vous allez bien?how is your daughter?= comment va votre fille?my father is better today= mon père va mieux aujourd’huiDiscussing weather and temperatureIn expressions of weather and temperature faire is generally used:it’s cold= il fait froidit’s windy= il fait du ventIf in doubt, consult the appropriate adjective entry.Visiting somewhereWhen to be is used in the present perfect tense to mean go, visit etc., French will generally use the verbs venir, aller etc. rather than être:I’ve never been to Sweden= je ne suis jamais allé en Suèdehave you been to the Louvre?= est-ce que tu es déjà allé au Louvre?or est-ce que tu as déjà visité le Louvre?Paul has been to see us three times= Paul est venu nous voir trois foisNote too:has the postman been?= est-ce que le facteur est passé?The translation for an expression or idiom containing the verb to be will be found in the dictionary at the entry for another word in the expression: for to be in danger see danger, for it would be best to … see best etc.This dictionary contains usage notes on topics such as the clock, time units, age, weight measurement, days of the week, and shops, trades and professions, many of which include translations of particular uses of to be. -
2 with
with [wɪð, wɪθ]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. avec• come with me! viens avec moi !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The pronoun is not translated in the following, where it and them refer to things.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• these gloves, I can't drive with them on ces gants-là, je ne peux pas conduire avec━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note the verbal construction in the following example.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I'm with you ( = understand) je vous suis• sorry, I'm not with you désolé, je ne vous suis pas• I'll be with you in a minute ( = attend to) je suis à vous dans une minute• I'm with you all the way ( = support) je suis à fond avec vous► to be with it (inf) ( = fashionable) être dans le vent (inf)get with it! ( = pay attention) réveille-toi !, secoue-toi ! ; ( = face facts) redescends sur terre !b. ( = on one's person) surc. ( = in the house of, working with) chez• I've been with this company for seven years cela fait sept ans que je travaille pour cette sociétéf. ( = in spite of) malgré• with all his intelligence, he still doesn't understand malgré toute son intelligence, il ne comprend toujours pas• with so much happening it was difficult to... il se passait tellement de choses qu'il était difficile de...• with that, he closed the door sur ce, il a fermé la porte* * *[wɪð, wɪθ]Note: If you have any doubts about how to translate a phrase or expression beginning with with ( with a vengeance, with all my heart, with a bit of luck, with my blessing etc) you should consult the appropriate noun entry (vengeance, heart, luck, blessing etc)with is often used after verbs in English ( dispense with, part with, get on with etc). For translations, consult the appropriate verb entry (dispense, part, get etc)This dictionary contains usage notes on such topics as the human body and illnesses, aches and pains which use the preposition with. For the index to these notesFor further uses of with, see the entry below1) ( in descriptions)2) (involving, concerning) aveca treaty/a discussion with somebody — un traité/une discussion avec quelqu'un
3) ( indicating an agent) avec4) (indicating manner, attitude)with difficulty/pleasure — avec difficulté/plaisir
‘OK,’ he said with a smile/sigh — ‘d'accord,’ a-t-il dit en souriant/soupirant
5) ( according to)6) (accompanied by, in the presence of) avecshe's got her brother with her — ( on one occasion) elle est avec or accompagnée de son frère; ( staying with her) son frère est chez elle
to live with somebody — ( in one's own house) vivre avec quelqu'un; ( in their house) vivre chez quelqu'un
7) (owning, bringing)8) (in relation to, as regards)what's up with Amy? —
what's with Amy? — US qu'est-ce qui ne va pas avec Amy?
9) (showing consent, support)I'm with you 100% ou all the way — je suis tout à fait d'accord avec toi
10) ( because of)sick with worry — malade or mort d'inquiétude
11) ( remaining)with only two days to go before the election — alors qu'il ne reste plus que deux jours avant les élections
12) ( suffering from)people with Aids/leukemia — les personnes atteintes du sida/de la leucémie
13) ( in the care or charge of)14) ( against) avec15) ( showing simultaneity)with that, he left — sur ce, il est parti
16) (employed by, customer of)17) ( in the same direction as)••to be with it — (colloq) ( on the ball) être dégourdi; ( trendy) être dans le vent
I'm not really with it today — (colloq) j'ai l'esprit ailleurs aujourd'hui
get with it! — (colloq) ( wake up) réveille-toi!; ( face the facts) redescends sur terre!
I'm not with you, can you repeat? — je ne te suis pas, tu peux répéter?
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