"like [proper noun]" - comme? comme ça?

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on January 29, 2011 at 1:28pm

I hope I understand what you want.

If you want to say :

"like [title]" then it's "comme [titre]"

So you could read or hear " Je fais comme monsieur ...", "C'est comme le film..."La maison rouge comme la maison verte seront détruite".

There isn't a verb built on "comme".

But "comme" has many siginifications :

Comme il est grand! How big he is!   It's an adverb.

Comme il est grand, il peut attraper le livre tout seul. As he is tall, he can get the book alone.

Comme il le voulait. As he wanted. It's a conjunction.

Il se comporte comme elle. He behaves like her.
Il travaille comme journaliste au... He work as a journalist in...

 

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EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on January 29, 2011 at 7:14pm

Erwan's reply is brilliant, I don't think I could have come up with that list.

I'll just add something about "Comme ça." It can usually just be translated as "Like that" or "So."

 

ex: Tu penses aller à la soirée habillé comme ça? = Are you thinking of going to the party dressed like that?

Nous ferons 200 km par jour, et comme ça nous arriverons en huit jours = We'll do 200 km a day, so we'll arrive in eight days.

 

In vernacular French, Comme ça! is an exclamation meaning Great! or Terrific! (Very often accompanied by a vigorous thumbs-up gesture)

ex: C'était très bien organisé, nous étions servi un déjeuner comme ça! = It was very well organised, we were served a terrific lunch.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on January 29, 2011 at 7:24pm

You're right, I forgot that one.

 

Ive noticed a spelling mistakes in my previous reply. A 's' is missing at the end of "détruite" and "work". It must be "...seront détruites" and "he works" .  Shame on me.

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Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on January 30, 2011 at 9:15am

Hello Stu,

I see an error here :

nous étions servi un déjeuner comme ça!

you should have written :

on nous a servi un déjeuner comme ça!

or

le déjeuner qu'on nous a servi était comme ça!

 

And I think I know another last example of "comme ça", other french-native speakers will give their opinion about it : an expression meaning roughly "like nothing has happened".

Il est venu comme ça, les mains dans les poches.

On m'a servi à manger comme ça, sans rien demander.

 

It is informal language, though.

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Permalink Reply by jamin benson on January 30, 2011 at 4:31am

thanks...maybe i should clarify.  i'm unsure whether or not it would be appropriate to just use "comme".  i'm curious, in a conversational sense, how i would reference a title...for example, if i were trying to compare something to a movie ( let's say "The Virgin Suicides")  if i would necessarily say "c'es t comme le film "The Virgin Suicides," or if in informal speech, i could shorten to "comme "The Virgin Suicides".  is that incorrect grammar?

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Permalink Reply by Erwan on January 30, 2011 at 9:08am

In fact you can say both.

But if you want to say "this movie looks like The Virgin suicide" you rather say "Ce film ressemble à The Virgin Suicide".

If you refer to a situation in the movie, then say "C'est comme dans (le film) The V.S."

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Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on January 30, 2011 at 9:24am

It is not incorrect, but make sure the person you're talking with know that it is a movie. :)

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