parcourir des yeux/du regard

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Permalink Reply by Stevo on July 21, 2016 at 2:13pm

Hi Alan.

Ta question est pleine de bon sens! Indeed, you are right to hesitate concerning the whole usage of “parcourir”. To say“parcourir du regard” in all cases only is against-indicated.

Here some real usages according to your questionings.

In an Art gallery/a store :

Someone : - “Bonjour, puis-je vous renseigner ?”

You : - “Non merci, Je regarde.” or “Non merci, je jette un oeil.” or “Non merci, je jette un coup d'oeil.”

Some accuracies : “Je ne veux que regarder” is a too negative phrase. “Non merci, je regarde.” is better and is very common in French.

“since i came across "parcourir un endroit des yeux/du regard" i'm wondering how i would use it.”

“parcourir du regard” is used according to two manners ( even if, in French like in English, the language is never definitively fixed. A language evolves often through each person. ) That is to say, the writting manner and the testimony manner. I explain...

1) The writing manner is by the process to write a novel, that is to say the literature process for instance :

“ Alan venait de rentrer dans le bar. En quelques seconde, Il a parcouru du regard chaque visage avant de trouver son internlocuteur, l'homme qui lui avait donné rendez-vous justement en ce lieu.”

( Alan just came in the pub. During some seconds, he glances each face before to find his interlocutor, precisely the man who given him an appointment in this place. )

2) The testimony manner is by the oral process, but is very close to a telling :

[ After a match, a football player said in front of a microphone : ] “On venait de gagner le match. C'était fabuleux! C'était impressionnant de parcourir du regard tous les gradins où s'exprimait une foule en liesse.”

( We just won the match. It was incredible ! It was sensational to glance all benches around where the crowd was jubilant.” )

 “i'm still not sure if i could say "je l'ai parcouru" to mean i just skimmed something.”

Yes, you can. “parcourir un livre” means exactly that you want to explain in your comment. So we quite can say :

- J'ai parcouru quelques paragraphes de ce livre.

( I skimmed some paragraphs of this book. )

- La lettre que j'ai parcouru n'était pas très interressante.

( The letter that I skimmed was not interesting. )

- En parcourant ce document, j'ai trouvé l'information que je voulais.

( During the skimming of this document, I found the information that I wanted. )

Anyway, Alan, thanks alot. Due to you, today I learned verbs “to skim” and “to glance” in the expression “glance around”.

J'espère, pour ta part, que tu parviendras à parcourir toute mon explication et que tu sauras à l'avenir utiliser “parcourir du regard/des yeux” avec aisance. ;-)

A bientôt.

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Permalink Reply by alan gould on July 21, 2016 at 3:35pm

absolutely.  you're invaluable.  by the way, you also skim (usually fat) off of soup, a sauce, etc.  so whether reading or cooking, you're just scrathing the surface

 

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Permalink Reply by alan gould on July 21, 2016 at 4:21pm

sorry.  scratching

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