Translation of a short phrase

Hello,

Could anyone please tell me if my translation of the following English sentence into French is incorrect or unnatural sounding? It's spoken by a young person, in an informal setting.

"I wanted it in pink, but Florence said it would clash with my hair."

"Je voulais en rose, mais Florence dit que ce serait en contradiction avec mes cheveux."

Many thanks!

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EducatorPermalink Reply by George Hunt on March 12, 2014 at 7:59pm

Well I am not really qualified as I haven't come across that circumstance in French but my guess would be that "serait en contradiction " might not be correct or as you say a bit unnatural (but just because I have not come across it doesn't mean it might not be right ).

However I think you can use "se marrier" to say that colours go together so perhaps that would be safer.

So ,maybe

"Je (le) voulais en rose, mais Florence a dit que cela se marrierait mal avec (la couleur de) mes cheveux."

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on March 12, 2014 at 8:48pm

hello,

marierait is a good option, maybe too mild depending on the intention of the utterer...

(but with just one "r" contrary to the English "to marry")

"I wanted it in pink, but Florence said it would clash with my hair."

other possibilities: jurer/ détonner

"Je le/la/voulais en rose, mais Florence a dit que cela/ jurerait/ détonnerait avec mes cheveux."

or allait jurer/ détonner avec ...

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Permalink Reply by Emma Willoughby on March 12, 2014 at 8:50pm

Thanks, George - I am not necessarily after an exact translation word-for-word, just something with the same basic meaning. Instead of 'would clash with' it could be 'wouldn't match', 'wouldn't go with', etc. I was trying to keep the phrase as short as possible, can you think of any other ways of phrasing it that don't have quite so many words in as your amended version above?

Thanks so much!

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Permalink Reply by Davenne Marc on April 17, 2014 at 6:09pm

Je le voulais en rose mais Florence a dit que ça n'irait pas avec mes cheveux

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Permalink Reply by Richard Last on April 17, 2014 at 6:44pm

Je le voulais en rose, mais Florence me disait que ce seriait au travers avec mes cheveux.