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translation
the context is a description of a frenchman, a baron in 1940's france, who's providing shelter for a resistance chief:
"Un long nez, le teint brule par le soleil et le vent, des yeux petits et durs, il tient a la fois du loup et du renard."
When i looked up tenir a, the meaning was "to care about";
but my gut feeling is the following translation, am i right?:
"A long nose, color sun and wind burned, eyes small and hard, he brought to mind at the same time the wolf and the fox."
isabelle
"Un long nez, le teint brule par le soleil et le vent, des yeux petits et durs, il tient a la fois du loup et du renard."
When i looked up tenir a, the meaning was "to care about";
but my gut feeling is the following translation, am i right?:
"A long nose, color sun and wind burned, eyes small and hard, he brought to mind at the same time the wolf and the fox."
isabelle
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Frank on
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Hi Isabelle,
"tenir de" and "tenir à" have different meanings.
tenir à means to care about.
tenir de (something) as in your sentence, means "to be made up of (something)".
I don't know if a literal English translation is possible, but "tenir de" can also sometimes be used with a person.
For example, "Il tient de sa mère" means "like mother like son".
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