A question for francophones

Not The Archers
1

Just got involved in a fairly lively discussion on a French learners’ discussion board. The question set was to translate “They swim a lot”. Simple enough, until someone asked why “souvent” wasn’t acceptable. They were slapped down with “there are words for both ‘a lot’ and ‘often’ in both English and French, so use the appropriate one”.

To me the question was perfectly valid; you can’t have more than one swim at at time, after all, so doing it “a lot” is synonymous with doing it “often”. (Admittedly there are contexts where it does makes a difference; consider “I drink often” and “I drink a lot”…)

Anyone out there who hasn’t forgotten all of their O- and A-level French got any thoughts?

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2

I have forgotten my French

To me I swim often implies swimming frequently whereas I swim a lot implies swimming a good distance at a time

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3

Why do you think I signed up?

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4

For what it is worth (pas beaucoup) I wouldn’t do it that way at all.
Ils sont nageurs habituels/passionés.
Ils nagent beaucoup - ça ne vas pas.

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5

This virus has some devastating legacies…

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6

How about “ils nagent énormément”?

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7

Yup, that works

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8

Translating it back again and literally, not everyone would like to be told they swim enormously. Especially if they do.

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9

“Tu es comme une baleine” should go down* well.

*Coming back up every hour, obviously…

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10

Rambling Syd Rumpo’s forgotten Eurovision entry…

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11

Ou sont les nadgers d’antan

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12

Chez véto.

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13

And on the International Day of the Cat too, Sparrer. Tasteless, very ;- )

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14

“Cétacé,” dit la baleine au cachalot.

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15

A FISH STORY

A whale of high porosity,
And low specific gravity,
Dived down with much velocity
Beneath the sea’s concavity.

But soon the weight of water
Squeezed in his fat immensity,
Which varied—as it ought to—
Inversely as his density.

It would have moved to pity
An Ogre or a Hessian,
To see poor Spermaceti
Thus suffering compression.

The while he lay a-roaring
In agonies gigantic,
The lamp-oil out came pouring
And greased the wide Atlantic.

(Would we’d been in the Navy,
And cruising there! Imagine us
All in a sea of gravy,
With billows oleaginous!)

At length old million-pounder,
Low on a bed of coral,
Gave his last dying flounder,
Whereto I pen this moral.

Moral

O let this tale dramatic
Anent this whale Norwegian,
And pressures hydrostatic
Warn you, my young collegian,

That down-compelling forces
Increase as you get deeper;
The lower down your course is,
The upward path’s the steeper

Henry A. Beer

http://www.blueridgejournal.com/poems/hab-flyleaves.htm

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