Best French Equivalent

A simple question for native speakers: I am interested in the best French equivalent for "taxi ride", as in "The taxi ride to the airport was interesting", or "The taxi ride through Paris was dangerous." I can see several different options, but don't have enough understanding to know which is "real" French. Thanks in advance!

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on September 13, 2011 at 11:40am

A litteral translation is une course en taxi but this is not often used.

In your exemple, I would say :

- The taxi ride to the airport was interesting -> Le trajet en taxi jusqu'à l'aéroport était intéressant.

- The taxi ride through Paris was dangerous -> Le trajet en taxi à travers Paris était dangereux or La traversée de Paris en taxi était dangereuse.

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Permalink Reply by dhhill on September 13, 2011 at 2:47pm

Thanks so much, Erwan. I'm curious with your translation if I make noun phrases out of taxi ride, e.g. "the dangerous taxi-ride" or "the airport taxi-ride". Does Le trajet en taxi still work? Thanks so much again.

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on September 13, 2011 at 3:26pm

You can say le dangereux trajet en taxi or un trajet en taxi dangereux ( for "a dangerous taxi-ride" of course) but I think it's not really casual (I never say/read that phrase but I never had a dangerous taxi-ride too :) ).

If you want a superlative : C'est le trajet en taxi le plus dangereux que j'ai pu vivre This is the most dangerous taxi-ride experience.

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Permalink Reply by dhhill on September 13, 2011 at 3:35pm

I've never had a dangerous taxi ride either. :-) I'm more interested in how compound nouns and complex noun phrases are constructed. I think I have a handle on the noun phrases, but can you in French say something like l'aéroport trajet en taxi (as in "The airport taxi-ride was...") or le Paris trajet en taxi ("The Paris taxi-ride was...) where you use a noun to modify an existing noun phrase. Thanks again for your help and expertise!

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on September 13, 2011 at 6:18pm

You can't say l'aéroport trajet en taxi and le Paris trajet en taxi. I think the noun phrases is an English particularity. You don't have so many occasion to see them in French.

In your examples you have to find another way to translate your noun phrases : Le trajet en taxi vers /jusqu'à/ à destination de l'aéroport

Sometimes you could see something like that : Le Paris-Lyon était en retard. Actually it's talking about a train which comes from Paris and goes to Lyon.

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Permalink Reply by dhhill on September 13, 2011 at 6:39pm

I'm afraid of the peculiarities of English. ;-) Thanks for your help. I think I have a better idea of this now.

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on September 13, 2011 at 7:05pm

Sorry for the mistake on peculiarity. It would too easy if the French and English adverbs have always the same structure. :)

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Permalink Reply by dhhill on September 13, 2011 at 10:04pm

Ah, not an issue. I didn't see it as a problem, because we can say also "the particulars of English" or "it is particular to English", as well as using "the peculiarities...". Merci!