How dose it seems to be?

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 4, 2009 at 12:38pm

Hi Deay,

Can you write the English version?

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Permalink Reply by Neil Fitzgerald on October 4, 2009 at 6:50pm

Deay:

As Frank said, an English translation would certainly help, but I'm impatient and I'm going to try to write down what I think you mean.

"On n'obtenait jamais les renseignements voulus. Mais aujord'hui, choses sont différentes. Vous ont fait beaucoup pour m'aider. Merci, merci beaucoup."

(Which I intended to mean "You never used to be able to get the desired information. But now, things are different. You've done a lot to help me. Thankyou, Thankyou very much.")

I've only been learning a few months, so there are probably things wrong with my version too...

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on October 5, 2009 at 4:34pm

It'll be interesting to see the opinions of Frank and some of the other French speakers here, but some things you could think about:
- adding "Autrefois" to the start of the first sentence might make the meaning of "used to" a bit clearer
- it would be "LES choses sont différentes", but there are surely more French-sounding ways to express this; one phrase that springs to mind is "il n'en est plus ainsi" (which effectively means "things aren't like that any more", though in a slightly more formal style)
- careful of "vous AVEZ..."
- you don't need to use "pour m'aider" (though it's fine)-- "pour moi" would be OK as well
- an idiomatic way of saying "thank you very much" in French is "merci infiniment", "je te remercie infiniment"

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Permalink Reply by Frank on October 5, 2009 at 10:32pm

(assuming Neil's translation)

Here's a non-literal translation, but that sounds like a native speaker:

C’était jusqu’ici difficile d’avoir des réponses à nos questions. Mais ce n’est plus d’actualité, car avez fait beaucoup pour moi. Merci infiniment !

Starting a sentence with "Autrefois" indeed makes the meaning of "used to" very clear, but it really means a looooooooong time ago. "Autrefois" refers to past generations, it's even older than "dans le temps" (back in the days).

"jusqu'ici" or "jusqu'à présent" (till now) doesn't bring you so much back in time.

"Ce n'est plus d'actualité" is a good way to say that something is over, or not relevant anymore.

Helping somebody can be said as "faire beaucoup pour quelqu'un".

And as Neil said, "merci infiniment" is a good way to say "thanks a million".

HIH,

-Frank.

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Permalink Reply by Deay on October 6, 2009 at 7:57pm

Thanks indeed. I think that beginners understand each other well.
Good luck Neil Fitzgerald

Stillwe need go throw the deepth of the language even though if we're beginners.
merci infiniment for all

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