laisser

i said to a french girl in a hostel after she finished washing dishes "tu peux le laisser" with regard to turning the water off. she understood me, but i just looked at "laisser" and i don't see a similar example. Was I wrong? "garder" would have been better, i guess.

merci d'avance

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on March 27, 2014 at 8:51pm

Not quite sure what you intended to say . For "tu peux le laisser" I would have understood "I'll finish off".

Turn the water off?? :"fermer the robinet"

You don't mean "let the water out"?

I am sorry I don't understand what the situation was.

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Permalink Reply by alan gould on March 27, 2014 at 10:19pm

i meant and she understood it as "you can leave it (running)"

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on March 28, 2014 at 1:49am

Maybe just "tu peux laissser" if it is clear from the context that you are talking about either laving the tap on or turning it off.

"Garder" doesn't sound right to me though.

I translate "garder" as "to keep" (= "hold onto") but as in "keep a thing" not as in "keep doing something" if that is what made you think of using "garder" .

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Permalink Reply by alan gould on March 28, 2014 at 2:07am

a girl from quèbec told me to use "garder" when i asked if i should use "entretenir" in the phrase "entretenir la fraîcheur de la pièce" hence my using it in this situation