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Translating phrasal verbs into French (2)On the previous page, we said that to translate phrasal verbs such as walked out, ran in, we need to "turn things round" in French:
Common direction verbsFor the direction verb, some very familiar verbs are generally used to translate phrasal verbs:
Suggest a change / proposez une modification Translating the mannerAlongside the "direction" verbs above, manner can be expressed in French using different types of expression:
Some common verbs that generally use the en ...ant construction include:
Suggest a change / proposez une modification Forms of transportSome verbs in English relate to vehicles or mode of transport, translated by en/par/à plus the vehicle name in French (note that walk fits into both this and the previous category). So we can often translate verbs such as drive down, cycle over, walk across with one of the above verbs plus one of the following expressions:
Suggest a change / proposez une modification More "figurative" expressionsBeyond the most common verbs, there are a large number of verbs, often derived directly from nouns, with more figurative uses. These are often translated with an appropriate adverb or other expression in French. Notice how with verbs based on nouns such as thunder, hammer, speed, we can try to find an expression that involves the corresponding noun in French.
Suggest a change / proposez une modification When the manner is obviousWhen the manner is either obvious or uninteresting, the corresponding phrase may not be expressed in French, leaving simply the verb denoting direction. Consider, for example:
he got in the car and drove down the street
the bird flew up into the tree the wind blew the tree over Suggest a change / proposez une modification In the first case, translating drove down as descendre en voiture would lead to voiture twice in the sentence; we can thus opt for something like:
une fois monté dans sa voiture, il a descendu la rue
Suggest a change / proposez une modification In the next two cases, translating flew up and blew over as est monté en volant or a renversé en soufflant is unnecessary. We can simply say:
l'oiseau est monté dans l'arbre
le vent a renversé l'arbre Suggest a change / proposez une modification It is understood that the bird flew rather than taking the number 9 bus, and that the wind's means of knocking over the tree was probably to blow rather than using a hand grenade...
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