Ben

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on February 15, 2011 at 12:02am

In an on-line chat context (i.e. conversation, but where people get to review their "utterances" before they "say" them), it will tend to be used to emphasise a contradiction, so a bit like "well" in English; "ben non!" would mean something like "of course not!" and "ben oui!" something like "of course (it is/they did/etc)!".

 

In speeech, the word "ben" is often roghly equivalent to English "er", "well" used as a 'filler' when the speaker is hesitating, but in an on-line chat scenario I guess this would be less common.

 

Of course, that's assuming it's not e.g. a misspelling of "bien": without a whole example it's hard to tell.

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Permalink Reply by Mathias on February 15, 2011 at 10:19pm

I'm agree with you Neil.

 

As you say, the speaker can use it when he's hesitating. here is a synonym which is used frequently : "euh..."

 

Q : Quelle est la capitale de l'Espagne?

A : euh/ben.... je ne sais pas.

 

Be careful, it's not well formed french language (or formal language)

 

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 16, 2011 at 11:11am

Thanks to both of you. In the context in which I have read "ben" your explanation does make sense

Thank you again

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