A humble Assimil French log

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Arnaud
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby Arnaud » Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:21 am

renaissancemedici wrote:
2. Neither seemed inclined to break the silence. Ni l’un ni l’autre semblait *encliné à rompre le silence.

"enclin à". Google translate gives a good alternative: être disposé à
It's more natural to put a negation, imho: Ni l'un ni l'autre ne semblaient...
The first sentence is correct.
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renaissancemedici
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby renaissancemedici » Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:33 am

Thank you!

So it's

Ni l’un ni l’autre semblait enclin à rompre le silence.

or

Ni l’un ni l’autre semblait disposé à rompre le silence.

or

Ni l'un ni l'autre ne semblaient disposés à rompre le silence.

or

Ni l'un ni l'autre ne semblaient être disposés à rompre le silence.

Am I going crazy?

I think if there is a negative word after ni l'un ni l'autre you use plural, otherwise singular?
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I use Assimil right now as a starting point, but at the same time I am building the foundation for further studies of German.

Assimil German with ease: 8 / 100

Arnaud
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby Arnaud » Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:10 pm

Imho, there is always a negation after "ni l'un ni l'autre". It's the same as "aucun" or "personne": personne n'est disposé à rompre le silence. I'm curious to know where you took that you can use it without a negation (at least when you write, when you speak I suppose that all is possible, especially in french)
#3 is the more natural to me, #4 is possible (I write "être" because it's the same grammatical function as "sembler", you can use both)
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renaissancemedici
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby renaissancemedici » Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:41 am

It's a 1929 book called French Prose Composition, which I was playing with yesterday, hoping it might help me with translating and producing texts. It is by no means my main book of learning! I was just hoping it would add some action to all that theory.

Here is what it says: ni l'un ni l'autre takes a singular verb when it is the negative of l'un ou l'autre (which usually takes a singular verb), but a plural verb when it is the negative of l'un et l'autre.
Ni l'un ni autre n'est mon père.
Ni l'un ni l'autre n'on fait leur devoirs.


In short it was I who didn't read this properly, and made a blunder! Thanks for helping me on this.


Here are some more translations. What with all the mistakes this is helping me a lot. I think I will keep it up.


:arrow: . Respect, esteem and confidence had vanished forever. Le respect, l’estime et la confiance étaient disparus pour toujours.
:arrow: . All the school, teachers included, rose en masse. Toute l’école, maîtres compris, se leva en masse.
:arrow: . Surely that handful of men are not going to charge an army position! Certainement, ce petit nombre de gens n’attaquerons pas une position de l’armée !



I'll be out of town for a few days so I won't be posting, but I'll be studying!
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I use Assimil right now as a starting point, but at the same time I am building the foundation for further studies of German.

Assimil German with ease: 8 / 100

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tastyonions
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby tastyonions » Fri Jul 27, 2018 12:12 pm

"Handful" can be "poignée." The idiomatic usage is very similar to English.

"Surely" to "certainement" feels too word-for-word for me in that context. Not sure I could give you a better alternative, though.
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Arnaud
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby Arnaud » Fri Jul 27, 2018 2:03 pm

Disparaître is conjugated with avoir, in modern french.
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renaissancemedici
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby renaissancemedici » Sun Aug 05, 2018 11:46 am

Thank you both!
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I use Assimil right now as a starting point, but at the same time I am building the foundation for further studies of German.

Assimil German with ease: 8 / 100

renaissancemedici
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby renaissancemedici » Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:00 am

I'm leaving on Friday and I won't be back until September, so have a good August everyone and keep studying.

I am still not sure about my plans for the C2, or the job exam for that matter. I will do some soul searching during the next month and have some serious time thinking about things. My motivations for wanting this particular job, do I really want a C2 in French or is Assimil knowledge more than enough? Generally speaking, the past three months since my father died seem like a thriller and an action movie both at once. I feel like all the events didn't let me act with a cool head. I need a clear mind to really decide what I want to do in the future, and then pursue it.

What I really want is peace of mind, an interesting job good enough to cover my expenses, and time to spend with my family and studies.

This entire job exam business is so against the odds that I shouldn't invest too much in it. I don't mean studying time, I mean in terms of this being my only plan. It's a dream that could come true but probably won't. I'll try I guess, but I need other options.


Until then I keep studying French, and enjoying the sea.
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I use Assimil right now as a starting point, but at the same time I am building the foundation for further studies of German.

Assimil German with ease: 8 / 100

renaissancemedici
Orange Belt
Posts: 198
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2018 6:41 am
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Languages: Greek (N), English (C2), French (B2), Italian (A2), German (beginner)
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby renaissancemedici » Fri Aug 10, 2018 4:08 pm

It turns out I have an internet connection where I'm at after all, so that's a nice surprise.


I'll be posting several translating exercises as soon as I have them. I prefer those to filling one gap exercises, because they really make me work for all of it rather than one part. They advance my vocabulary fast, plus the ones I'll post are so strange (being from an older book) that they are fun and interesting. Hopefully for you as well. Some examples:
-I took him for a god, and was about to address him in Greek. :o :o :lol: :lol: :lol:
-I have had means of information of which you could never have dreamed. 8-)
-All the wits had combined to keep up the joke. (What on earth does that mean? That they were all in on it? :? )
-Many a long winter's night I had thought of the profound remarks I should make to Goethe if I should ever see him. (No comment...)

There are countless more you can't possibly imagine. Plus 158 texts of, shall we say, great variety...


Of course I'm using modern grammar and vocabulary, of course I use other drills as well. But this is by far the most interesting part of my studies, and it's the one I'll share with you. If I manage all this I'll be on a very good path anyway.

The only thing: I'm thinking of using the passé composé instead of the passé simple. Isn't it used less these days? Or does C2 demand to be perfect at that as well?
For example
All the school, teachers included, rose en masse: Toute l’école, maîtres compris, se leva en masse. Would we ever say that, or would it be more natural to say s'est levé? (Is it even correct?)

I don't know, maybe I'll stick to whatever the exercise is...

I have already made the decision to go with the flow, and by November see if I can take the C2 exam. I won't die over it, non merci. I feel my motivation back just by thinking like that.
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I use Assimil right now as a starting point, but at the same time I am building the foundation for further studies of German.

Assimil German with ease: 8 / 100

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Ani
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Re: A french race for C2

Postby Ani » Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:50 pm

renaissancemedici wrote:-I took him for a god, and was about to address him in Greek. :o :o :lol: :lol: :lol:
-I have had means of information of which you could never have dreamed. 8-)
-All the wits had combined to keep up the joke. (What on earth does that mean? That they were all in on it? :? )
-Many a long winter's night I had thought of the profound remarks I should make to Goethe if I should ever see him. (No comment...)


The only thing: I'm thinking of using the passé composé instead of the passé simple. Isn't it used less these days? Or does C2 demand to be perfect at that as well?
For example
All the school, teachers included, rose en masse: Toute l’école, maîtres compris, se leva en masse. Would we ever say that, or would it be more natural to say s'est levé? (Is it even correct?)


Those sentences are really funny :) The joke one, I picture a group of guys sitting around and everyone throwing in a pun to keep a joke going around a group. Those times when everyone has some witty quip to add...

The sentence about teachers sounds super weird to me in passé composé. I don't think the passé simple is ever use in speaking outside of telling stories to children and politicians who are extremely well read ;) But the sentence isn't phrased like a spoken sentence.

Hope you're having a great holiday!
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But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.


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