Interpretation based on context

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Permalink Reply by Sandra on January 20, 2015 at 10:04am

Hello !

"là aussi" is linked to "une première" it doesn't really refers to a place as usual but to a specific event. The literal translation would be:

At 7,4%, china's growth slowed down in 2014 to its lower annual rate since 1990. [note: This event is a "première" in china's history]. The republic misses the objective fixed by its government, a growth of 7,5% of GDP, a "première" also, since sixteen years"

In this specific context: journalist writing style + list of facts/events "là aussi" must be understood as "also" and not its usual meaning  "here too".

hope this helps :)

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Permalink Reply by Robert on January 20, 2015 at 11:46pm

Sandra, thanks.
As often , the correct answer turns out not even hard or complicated , does it?
Can I ask for a critique on this sentence:

là aussi, comme partout, l'interprétation correcte est l'une la plus directe .
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By the way, 'since' never goes with 'sixteen years, ' because this is a duration.
It goes with a point in time : Since January 1999.
With duration: in/for sixteen years. (Though 'in' is often for completion of an action within a future time.)

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Permalink Reply by Sandra on January 21, 2015 at 9:56am

Indeed :)

When I explain something on the forum I'm always amazed at how much my own language is complex ...

"La aussi, comme partout, " is very well used here, (you could also use "ici aussi" no difference) but you need to delete the "l'une", because you already got "la".

"La aussi, comme partout, l'interprétation correcte est la plus directe."

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Thanks for the tips !

I'll try to remember and apply it when I'm writing about time/dates :)

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on January 21, 2015 at 9:57am

Hello,

là aussi, comme partout, l'interprétation correcte est l'une la plus directe 

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on January 21, 2015 at 1:06pm

Robert ,I think you were trying to translate  an English way of speaking that doesn't get used at all in French.

We very often say  "the good one" or "the correct one " as well as  "good ones" etc.

There is nothing at all  like that in French and you just have to find another way of expressing the idea .

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Permalink Reply by Robert on January 23, 2015 at 7:10am

True enough, and I can see my sentence above needed correction as it was.
On the other hand , the expression 'the one + adjectival phrase' seems quite common in publications. Just for one:

La deuxième plage, l'un le plus loin, est plus charmante, plus rustique et la recherche, l'atmosphère est plus décontracté...

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Permalink Reply by Sandra on January 23, 2015 at 9:29am

I have troubles understanding this phrase... :/

I would say:

La deuxième plage, la plus éloignée, est plus charmante et plus rustique, l'athmosphère y est plus décontractée...

One: "l'un le" is  incorrect, we never double the definite or undetermined article in french "the [something] one " must never be translated literally. To give you a tips: if you know about which beach you are talking about you will use "la" it means it's that one we talked about earlier and that your reader knows too; "une" is undetermined, "On doit trouver une plage" "we must find a beach" here I don't know which one.

Two: "Plage" is feminine :) so the correct article is "la"

Three: "La deuxième plage, la plus loin.." is correct but sounds really weird to me. It's because "loin" is not an adjective where I'm expecting and adjective. I suppose you want to to translate : "The second beach, the farther one.." I am right ? Well here in french I understand something like "The second beach, the most far...". "Far/loin" which is an adverb in French must be replaced by the adjective (with the feminine form) "éloignée"

Four: I don't understand at all what "la recherche" is doing here ? maybe if you can show me the English original sentence...

Five: When you say "l'atmosphère est plus décontractée" you're making a general statement. Like "the sky is blue", "the music is nice, "the food is good"...etc. As you are talking about a specific place in this sentence you cannot have a general statement in the middle, it's very illogical. Here you must use "y".

"Y" is an adverbial pronoun that refers to a previously mentioned place (here: the beach); it is normally translated by "there" in English.

And finally, be careful to not make an abusive use of comas, I don't remember the exact rule for the use of comas but if you are not making a list, lesser is better...

:)

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Permalink Reply by Robert on January 23, 2015 at 3:01pm

I got it from Linguee, from which I usually find good quotes from published materials. But this particular example , I can see now, is quite short of standard. (Its source beinng a Spanish online ad, the writer probably was not even proficient with French.)

Still, this bad thing did not all go to waste, because thank to how generous you are with all those apt and thoughtful comments, it has turned out to be a learning opportunity for me. So, merci beaucoup.

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on January 23, 2015 at 2:22pm

@Robert ,I see you got that example from

http://www.linguee.fr/anglais-francais/traduction/more+laid+back.html

It looks to me as if that site may not be always reliable in that case.

It does mention ........"Exemples de traduction provenant de sources externes" and I couldn't track down or open that esplaya.com website where the example is supposed to originate from..

Maybe it is a roundabout attempt at translation from Spanish or even Google Translate..

Mind you I don't see any other obvious mistakes on that page.

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Permalink Reply by Robert on January 24, 2015 at 8:43am

As you mentioned before, " l'un le plus..." can not be used as direct equivalence of 'the one most...' - not like this: 'She is the prettiest one/ the one most beloved.'

However, "l'un, le plus..." is common where it represents an item of a collection previously known, and especially easily found with the structure "l'un...l'autre" :

Elle est composée de deux bandelettes superposées; l'une, la plus large, est grise; l'autre est bleu acier bordée d'or et de blanc et porte des inscriptions et ornements imprimés en deux couleurs.

Ce sont toujours les deux jours des solstices qui sont , l'un le plus long jour de l' année , & l'autre le plus court.

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