Translation Help - Conjugation

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on November 17, 2012 at 11:33am

J’ai su Je savais que ("j'ai su" means "I realised") je mort mourrrais  (or "je serais mort") si je n’ai ne lui avais pas pas te donné mes mon  argent mais d’autre part, ma grande mère  grand-mère va devenir deviendrait  plus mal malade si je n’achèterais lui n'achetais pas le de médécine.

 

I have used   conditional tenses and past imperfect tenses.

J'ai su is the past pefect form of savoir  and can be translated as "I realised" . "I knew" would be more likely to need the imperfect (je savais) form  as the knowing is  not immediate but ongoing.

You have muddled up "to him"  and "to her" with "you" ("te")

to me   = me

to him/her = lui

to you    = te or vous

to us    = nous

to them   = leur

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on November 17, 2012 at 1:34pm

Just be careful with the typo at the end: the word order would of course be "si je ne lui achetais pas...".

If you use "je mourrais", then I think following the meaning through logically, this more or less implies that the next verb would be "si je ne lui donnais pas..." unless the person was at that moment in the past unsure whether or not they'd given the money. I think "je serais mort si je ne lui avais pas donné..." is fine, just that it implies something very slightly different to the English (closer to saying "I would have died if I hadn't given...", which implies the decision to give was made prior to the main past time reference of the narrated event, if that makes sense...).

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on November 17, 2012 at 3:03pm

I think it    makes  sense when I  think about it !

So  "Je savais que  je  mourrrais   si je  ne lui donnais pas  mon  argent" it is.

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