RE: Jouer

Hi,

Could someone help me with this please, I can't seem to get it right. I'd like to say: I hope that you're enjoying your stay in Rome !"

What I've written is: Je souhaite que tu jouisse ton séjour a Rome ! Which I think is : I hope that you enjoy your stay in Rome ! I've tried many forms of the verb jouer, but I haven't been able to use the correct one ?

Amitiés,

Marijeanne

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Permalink Reply by Ed la mouette on June 8, 2011 at 9:33pm

Hello Marijeanne,

First, be sure not to mix up jouer (to play) et jouir (to enjoy).

Second, to hope gives espérer. Souhaiter is to wish.

Third, to enjoy can be quite difficult to translate. Here's some examples :

- My dog enjoys playing with a ball : mon chien adore jouer avec une balle

- Enjoy yourself ! : Amuse-toi !

- I hope that you're enjoying your stay : J'espère que tu profites bien de ton séjour

In this case, while in English you use the "to be + -ing" form to express a duration of the enjoyment, in french we don't express that duration : on profite (we enjoy), mais on n'est pas en train de profiter (we're enjoying)

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Permalink Reply by fireandiceluz on June 8, 2011 at 10:08pm

Salut, Ed,

Merci bien de votre assistance ! Actually I didn't get jouir confused with jouer, I just typed the wrong word in the subject box. Your explanation was greatly appreciated, I didn't realize that in French the "to be + ing " form to express the duration of enjoyment isn't used. No wonder I couldn't find it ! Would this hold true when expressing the duration of any other action that you can't actually see i.e. thinking, etc. ?

Kind regards,

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Permalink Reply by Neil Coffey on June 8, 2011 at 11:55pm

In French it's not so common to make the distinction between "does" and "is doing" etc. Obviously French does have ways to express the difference if need be, but it turns out that it's not usually necessary.