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Monday, 11 August 2008 |
It is a commonplace (lieu
commun) to say that English
is generally shorter than
French, often appearing to
express the same idea with
fewer words. But what is less
obvious is that this economy
of expression is also true in
French, but in different ways.
French achieves a greater
degree of economy in three
common cases:
a) When the main and
subordinate verbs share the
same subject, the French uses
a preposition and the
infinitive: je le ferai avant de
partir (I’ll do it before I go).
Here it is obvious to the
French mind that it is ‘I’ that
is going, not anyone else.
This ‘shared subject’ feature
of French is so common it
really is worth remembering
(je crois savoir ce qui s’est
passé – I think I know what
happened; je pense partir
demain – I’m thinking
of/planning on leaving
tomorrow).
b) verbs of movement +
infinitive: venez dîner (come
and have dinner/come for
dinner), va chercher ton livre
(go and get your book – but
note that in American ‘go get
your book’ is possible)
c) the causative faire +
infinitive in French, where
English hesitates between
‘have’, ‘make’ and ‘cause’
(someone to do something,
have something done, etc.):
elle m’a fait tout nettoyer (she
made/had me clean it all up);
il voudrait nous faire croire
que (he would have us believe
that); je dois le faire réparer
(I must have it
fixed/mended).
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