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Just a quick question. How does one refer to two or more females as "very beautiful" in French?
It's part of the next chapter. I want to be absolutely certain I get it right, but I haven't studied foreign language since High School ;-)
The exact sentence is,
“My young friends, you both look very beautiful!"
I can't remember if it's tré or trés. I remember 'Belle' means 'Beauty' because of Beauty and the Beast, but that's about it.
Thanks in advance! :-D
~Zoe
Tres belle!
:D Oui?
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Thanks Andrea!
I don't trust Google Translator, and while I'm able to fudge most of the necessary dialogue in English (both for readers' and my own sake ;-)) there were a few bits and pieces that just needed to be done in French for atmosphere. :-D
Translation
Mes jeunes amis, vous avez tous deux l'air très beau!
Try: Google Translate
Patois Sociale
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*Giggle*
Nice timing ;-D
I actually did end up using Google Translator for a couple of other parts, but I wanted to be sure it was using the proper usage here :-D
Personally, I prefer...
babylon.com (Pick your from & two languages... English to Japanese is just where I bookmarked it.
I found the results better than Google's translations most of the time (but not all!).
It's translation of your sentence: Mon jeune amis, vous avez tous deux très belles!
Almost identical to PS's.
Ann
tres beau
Beau is usually used in reference to men or objects. Women are usually belle, unless one damns them with faint praise. Jolie would be pretty, perhaps not quite as nice as beautiful, but much more appropriate in certain situations. It all depends on the exact relationship being described.
And then we have the tu/vous decision. Are the beautiful ones children? Dear friends? Or adults one should be relatively formal towards?
I'd be careful. In Quebec, one might say Vous êtes écoeurante (you're stunning) and reasonably expect a smile, but it means "You're nauseating" in France, so the reaction might be less pleasant.
Finding a native speaker would be best, or just write in English and simply tell the reader it's French.
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
One more question ;-)
How does "Chez Petit Rouge" sound for a completely fictional "French" restaurant in a suburban Connecticut community? ;-)
I am exceedingly uncomfortable with foreign language, and this is, without question, one of the major points in my writing where I'm worried about getting everything just right :-D
The name has some small, unique symbolism (That is, "Little Red" does), but I can change it if it sounds too weird.
Further question...
Firstly, if you're naming a French restaurant, why not invent an owner or a chef, and name it after them?
As far as I'm concerned, Chez Pierre or Chez Suzette or even Chez Fournier has a bit more 'je ne sais quois' than Chez Petit Rouge.
You've also commented about online translators.
One thing I'd always do after translating, say, from English to French, is back translate the result to English. If it's the same, I'd feel fairly confident. If not, try other sources.
Petit Suggestions
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I did this once
I translated "Don't spare the horse," into French where it came out essentially "Don't save the horses." (I forget the actual French.) When I translated that back to English, it came out, "Don't backup the horses." :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
That works! :-D
I was a little worried about that sounding too obvious, but if it sounds okay I'd love to do that instead :-D
It's ultimately background for another conversation that sheds more light on a supporting character's past, while progressing the current storyline for the main protagonist. I just didn't want it to be a hitching point for readers, in any case :-D
Little Red House
Chez means roughly, "where I live" (or where we live, etc), or it can be used as "the house of" or "the home of". This means that your phrase translates to "The house of the Little Red", "The house where the little red lives", or similar.
Perhaps you want "Maison Petit Rouge", which would be "Little Red House".
Thinking up names for shops and eating places is a pain in the neck. I've just had to do several for State and it's almost as hard as thinking up people's names :P
Penny
Ohhh yeah.
Thinking up names for shops and eating places is a pain in the neck
You can say that again! ;-) With people I can usually match their name to their personality type. Robin came about by accident as I was writing her first encounter with Allison, but the others I chose intentionally.
With place names though, especially when it's a name in a language that my exposure has been limited to bad Hollywood stereotypes at most, it's much more frustrating.
Margie's clothing business, 'Touch of Style' didn't originally have a name even, since it wasn't originally supposed to be important to the story. A later chapter fixed that, so I had to spend some quiet time asking myself what *she'd* want to call it. :-D
La Petite Rouge
is the usual French name of the story known in English as "Red Riding Hood."
Cheers,
Puddin'
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
*grin* You got the reference ;-)
"Little Red" was the nickname I gave to my ex-fiancé back when we had only been dating for a couple of months. She was 5' tall with absolutely striking, dark red hair, but she was also a fan of the song by the same name, by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs :-D
The relationship itself was a complete disaster and a half, but I sometimes still miss her friendship.
It's been awhile.
Since I've had to write anything in French but I'm pretty sure it'd go something like;
"Ma jeaune amis, vous entre tres belle."
Bailey Summers
tres jolie
also works :)
Translations
I haven't discovered Babylon yet, but on the rare occasions I've needed to translate something, I've tried both Google and Babelfish, then fed the results back into the translation engines for a reverse translation.
If the reverse translation is a pretty good match to the original, I assume that the original translation was pretty good.
Google: Mes jeunes amis, vous avez tous deux l'air très beau! (My young friends, you both look beautiful!)
Babelfish: Mes jeunes amis, vous tous les deux regardez très beau ! (My young friends, both look at you very beautiful!)
Babylon: Mon jeune amis, vous avez tous deux très belles! (My young friends, you have all two trs beautiful!)
Babylon doesn't seem to cope very well with accents when doing the reverse translation...
Google's reverse translation of Babylon's effort: My young friends, you both very beautiful!
Google's reverse translation of Babelfish's effort: My young friends, you both look beautiful!
Babelfish's reverse translation of Google's effort: My young friends, you have both l' very beautiful air!
Babelfish's reverse translation of Babylon's effort: My young person friends, you have both very beautiful!
So comparing the three, my hunch would be that Google is the most accurate for that particular phrase. Note that Google is also partially crowd-sourced, as it has a "Suggest a better translation" link - so I'd guess that for fairly common phrases, it will be fairly accurate.
-oOo-
Interestingly enough, someone's written an application that exploits the inaccuracies of automatic translation:
http://tashian.com/multibabel/
After translating back and forth between English and French, German, Italian, Portugese and Spanish, the phrase ends up as:
My comfortable young people, both very consider it of the pretty way!
Another round trip: My comfortable young people, both consider it very graceful method!
A third time: My comfortable young people, both consider it very amiable method!
Fourth: My comfortable young people, both consider it very pleasant method!
Fifth: My comfortable young people, both consider it very pleasant method!
Evidently it's immutable beyond that point... although there is a wicked variation that includes Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Unsurprisingly, as it's also changing the alphabet each time, the results are even more hilarious.
First: They are the new friend, I make sure very narcotic!
Second: Their new friendly in the morning, are I that the anesthesia recognized!
Third: The harmonious morning continues being, is I he anesthesia the small indicator the station of the work!
Fourth: During the morning as it is attacked, if its anesthesia is continuously small terminal of the work of the symbol of the instruction!
Fifth: Thus in the symbol of the work of the instruction during the anesthesia of the always small terminal in the morning, in the attack taken from the way!
Erm...OK...right...sure...as if...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
vous êtes très belles
you are very beautiful!
vous êtes très belles!
je ne sais quoi
I think you need something like "Ah! Quelles belles, mes jeunes amies!"
It's not the sort of moment a French person would use a proper sentence.
Not a bad suggestion.
Not a bad suggestion. Translates as "What (female) beautiful ones, my young friends"
Or just "Si belles, mes jeunes amies!"
The "Little red" bit can be translated a number of ways. Are you referring to a redhead (petit roux/ petite rousse)? Or "Rouquin/rouquine" depending on gender. The first pair have the sense of "Little redhead", the second "little ginger"
If it is "Little Redhead's place", "Chez Petite Rousse". If it is "Place of the little redhead", "Chez la petite rousse"