Eviter

Eviter de manger trop de gras.

I read the above in an advertisements on France 2 channel.

Does it mean avoid eating a lot of fats or avoid eating a lot of meat?

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Permalink Reply by Frank on July 23, 2009 at 11:40am

Hello Crack,

"gras" means "fat".

So yes, it means "avoid eating too much fat".

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on July 23, 2009 at 12:05pm

Thanks Frank

Eviter de manger beaucoup de gras.

I wonder whether the word 'beaucoup' could simply replace the word 'eviter'.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on July 23, 2009 at 1:15pm

No, it can't.

"beaucoup" means "a lot"/"much", while "éviter" is a verb ("avoid").

Are you talking about "trop" vs "beaucoup" instead?

"trop" means "too much", while "beaucoup" is "a lot". "trop" is one step further :)

But yes, in such an example, "beaucoup de gras" would be perfectly acceptable as well.

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on July 23, 2009 at 5:13pm

1.Il a trop d'argent.

2.Il a beaucoup de argent

I think to say a lot, in French, you will always use the word 'beaucoup'.
Do you use the first sentence? I am not sure.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on July 23, 2009 at 5:28pm

"Il a trop d'argent" means that he's too rich. There might be situations where you'd say that. Imagine that in your workplace, some coworker acomplishes next to nothing. You know what's going on, every coworker is aware of the situation as well, but for some reason the boss isn't. Someday, you discover that this guy earns a huge salary for what he's worth. You can say "Il a trop d'argent", and it'd be fair enough.

"Il a beaucoup d'argent" really means "a lot". He's got a lot of money. But it's ok. Perhaps he worked hard. He might have a lot more money than you, but you think it's acceptable. "Steve Jobs a beaucoup d'argent". That's true. I'm scrapped for cash while he could buy a Ferrari a day, but he's some kind of a genius, there's a reason, a justification. So, il a beaucoup d'argent, mais il n'a pas trop d'argent.

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Permalink Reply by Crack1 on July 23, 2009 at 5:54pm

Thanks Frank

I heard Steve Jobs has some kidney problems.

The English word 'co-worker' is a noun. We usually write ' co-worker' not 'coworker'.

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Permalink Reply by Frank on July 23, 2009 at 6:03pm

Noted. Thanks for pointing this out Crack1.

Yes, SJ had a kidney transplant. But we're disgressing from the topic (or not... kidney... beans... ok, there's a link... :)).