Do I understand the email correctly - Please help

Replies to This Discussion

EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on January 29, 2010 at 11:18pm

The first short sentence means Make your life easier.

"your chances in finding the job that you ever dream!" is a really horrible translation. How about "the chances of finding your dream job!"

In the last one, I would translate "communiquer" as supply, in this sense. They'd have used the exact equivalent verb, vérifier, if that's what they had meant.

The rest is OK.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on January 31, 2010 at 5:15am

Hi stu,

Thanks for your advice.


... le job qui vous fait rêver

'qui' and 'que' having the same meaning;
pron. what, that, which, whom

when or in which occasion shall I use qui/que


I'm not very clear on the structure of this phrase "qui vous fait rêver"? Please shed me some light.


"communiquer" = communicate, convey, etc. in English

What is its actual meaning in French there? Thanks


Furthermore re;
Excellente recherche

Most time in French adj. comes after the noun. Here the adj. is before the latter. Why ?


B.R.
Stephen L

• ▶ Reply

EducatorPermalink Reply by stu harris on February 1, 2010 at 12:54am

when or in which occasion shall I use qui/que
I was hoping Neil would take that one on, but since he didn't...

The facile answer is that qui = who, que = what or which. But that's only a sure thing if the word starts a sentence.

In the context ... le job qui vous fait rêver obviously the literal meaning is "the job that makes you dream" or ...which makes you dream. This is mysterious to me, because I "feel" that qui is correct here. On the other hand a similar construction would demand que:

I'm giving you back the book you lent me.
Je vous rends le livre que vous m'avez preté

Neil, help!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on February 1, 2010 at 3:36am

Sorry, I skipped over this question.

Basically:
- qui means 'who, which' etc when it represents the subject of the verb;
- que means 'who, which' etc when it represents the object of the verb.

So for example:
L'homme qui m'a aidé
Here, qui is effectively the subject of a aidé ("who or what helped").
L'homme que j'ai vu
Here, que is effectively the object ("who or what is seen").

Note that it's not true that qui means "who" and que means "what" in this case: the choice is purely dependent on the choice between subject vs object. So even when a non-person is involved, the criterion for choosing between qui vs que is essentially the same:

La lettre qui m'a bouleversé
The letter that upset me
La lettre que j'ai écrit
The letter (that) I wrote

Notice that in English, one clue to the difference between subject/object is that that cannot be omitted when it represents the subject (first sentnce) but it can when it represents the object (second sentence). Or at least, this holds true for "restrictive" relative clauses like these (where the relative clause defines which thing/person you're talking about, rather than just "adding some information").

(There are other uses where the choice does depend on animacy, e.g. avec qui can only mean "with who"/"who with", and not "with what"/"what with". We're not dealing with these more complex cases here.)

In the grammar section of the web site, there is a bit more information on when to use "qui" and "que", including some more hints on telling the difference between subject and object.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on February 2, 2010 at 2:36am

Hi Neil,

Lot of thanks for your detail explanation.

B.R.
Stephen

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on January 31, 2010 at 5:17pm

As far as I can see you've basically understood the French. Obviously in a "real" translation, the translator would be aiming to make the English sound like it was the original document written by a native English-speaking marketing specialist, and I think it's fair to say that the English you have at the moment doesn't really sound like that. But I think you have got the gist of the message.

For your last sentnce, I would just say "...will never send you any e-mail asking you for your...". If you really want to translate the verb, you could use "disclose": "will never send you any e-mail asking you to disclose...". "verify" isn't quite what they mean here.

Depending on the exact content, "notice" could be "instructions", "recommendations"...

P.S. Just seen Stu Harris's suggestion of "supply" for "communiquer"-- I think that would work nicely too.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Stephen Liu on February 2, 2010 at 2:40am

Hi Neil,

"disclose" is the word I'm looking for. It has been applied in the warning on some webmail sites.

B.R.
satimis

• ▶ Reply