privilégier

I believe I read this sentence in the french version of wikipedia about berlin:

"on a privilégié les lignes de métro."

It means "to favor" (british "favour"), yet when i looked up the english word, they have "favoriser" which they say is with regard to a person. there is no mention of "privilégier." is it used when not about a person? If so, I would imagine "favoriser" would also be used in that case as well.

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Permalink Reply by Chantal Savignat on May 22, 2013 at 9:13pm

Hello

"privilégier" = "favoriser"

Both words are used for a person or a thing. The difference is very thin.

here "privilégier" = there was a choice to do and the winner was ...

"favoriser" is more "to give an advantage"

so here "favoriser les lignes de métro" is not as good.

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Permalink Reply by alan gould on May 22, 2013 at 10:14pm

thank you as always, chantal. since you say the difference is very slight, i won't split hairs over it. however, just for the fun of it, it would be interesting if someone could illustrate the distinction. you say that "favoriser" is giving an advantage to one party over another. but it seems that "privilégier" is used exactly the same in the sentence i cited -- the metro has intentionally been given priority/resources over other modes of transportation.

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Permalink Reply by Vedas on May 22, 2013 at 11:40pm

Hello,

Depending on contexts "privilégier" would mean to "give priority" and favoriser "to encourage/promote", the difference may be that when you encourage something it doesn't mean that it will be adopted whereas it is the case with "give priority "