alittlebitfrench Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 So what does 'en' in French mean in English.Where is Betty when you need her ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 Depends on the context; in, on, of those, of which and other possibilities.Give us the whole sentence, or even better, the 2 or 3 sentences surrounding it and we'll tell you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 "Of it", "of them"i.eJ'en ai assez.Un train peut en cacher un autre.Il en reste encore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 En faite, je m'en foute, En plus je m'en vais. Johhny Marr. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betise Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 love the last one Chancer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted November 12, 2017 Author Share Posted November 12, 2017 Sorry, I have copyright on the 'Johhny Marr'. I did that at university back in 1996. None of the French exchange students got it mind you. There is another one equally as cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted November 12, 2017 Share Posted November 12, 2017 'en' is the sound made by the French when disturbed or even woken from a nap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 Well spotted Wooly. "En" (shrug shoulders)......"et alors" ? What does the 'en' mean it that sentence ?j'ai en marre (Johnny Marr)So what does the 'en' mean in English.I'm fed up......With it all ? or With it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 The first one should be "Ben, - et alors" The second should be 'J'en ai marre' - which I am. I hope you understand now Ben. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 Ben ????? Without pronouncing the B you mean. So more of an 'en' then. I am fed up which I am. Sounds like Yoda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 No-No! Ben, my real name is Johhny Marr! But apparently Ben you are claiming intellectual rights to it, reminds me of a Michael Crichton novel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 And what does your wife say it means ALBF???? I use it without thinking, but there again, when I speak french IF I started thinking about how I was going to say things, I would not be able to say anything.I yabber, which I believe comes from that prehistoric term of yabber dabber do.......... or maybe not[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EuroTrash Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 It's a bit like saying What does "to" in English mean in French.It means what it means, according to context. And according to what it means, that's how you translate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted November 13, 2017 Author Share Posted November 13, 2017 @ Idun....My wife is the worlds worse teacher of French. She is useless.Talking of which, Chancer. Try and guess the name of my wife.In order to pronounce it correctly you have to say 'my hell'.Its true that. You could not make it up could you ?.EDIT: You might get this one ET being Welsh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 [quote user="EuroTrash"]It's a bit like saying What does "to" in English mean in French.It means what it means, according to context. And according to what it means, that's how you translate it.[/quote]I like the word nach in German. It can mean either coming from or going to depending on the sentence. Dessous and dessus can be confusing in spoken French as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 13, 2017 Share Posted November 13, 2017 I have real problems with that, I can understand it when spoken to me because usually the French will pronounce them differently but its beyond my tongue to do so and i am mentally hampered in composing my speech in thinking is it en or au, sus or sous, I have to think of a sous sol as being under the house and then I can speak but then my prononcialtion confuses the listener. Bislama is my favorite, Blong for everything!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 You can understand the confusion. Most French people, indeed many people from elsewhere, too, have trouble with translating "their" en into whatever it should be in Engish,specifically when it's being used as a preposition of place. Je vais en Angleterre. How many times do you hear that translated as "I go in England"? ( yeah, the whole "ing" thing stumps 'em too).Context is everything. See, "en" means so many things in English as a preposition...and it doesn't marry up too well with French.I was born in Bolton, in England, in the UK, in the hospital, in October...à Bolton, en Angleterre, au Royaume-Uni, à l'hôpital, en Octobre.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Thank God we only have to learn French, Betty!I could never cope with English as a foreign language... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Ah but learning English is a cinch compared to learning French[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 Not so sure about that, Nimty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritinBretagne Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 [quote user="mint"]Ah but learning English is a cinch compared to learning French[;-)][/quote]Simple as reed, read, red indicates. That’s before we consider cough, should, tough etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 English is not a Wysiwyg language, though. Which is why I get a bit tetchy when yet another "report" indicates that children in UK primary schools take longer to read and write competently.There may be some truth to the theory that acdemic standards are falling, though that's probably more to do with secondary education, but one of the key issues is that there's little relationship between pronunciation and spelling in English. Finland is always top of these tables. Finnish, although incredibly difficult as a language, is a doddle for kids to learn when it comes to reading and spelling, because it sounds (to the Finns, anyway) exactly as it looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 [quote user="You can call me Betty"]English is not a Wysiwyg language, though. Which is why I get a bit tetchy when yet another "report" indicates that children in UK primary schools take longer to read and write competently.There may be some truth to the theory that acdemic standards are falling, though that's probably more to do with secondary education, but one of the key issues is that there's little relationship between pronunciation and spelling in English. Finland is always top of these tables. Finnish, although incredibly difficult as a language, is a doddle for kids to learn when it comes to reading and spelling, because it sounds (to the Finns, anyway) exactly as it looks.[/quote]How familiar that sounds! When I was learning Spanish, I was told that the pronunciation is easy as you pronounce every syllable and not like English where we often miss out syllables whilst placing more emphasis on some and less emphasis on others.I can categorically say that that is NOT correct. Yes, they may sound every syllable but they sound them in a Spanish way and nothing like the way I make them sound.Found this out to my chagrin when I tried to speak Spanish whilst on the Compostelle. Couldn't say "aqua" like the Spanish do and "Zaragoza" was as strange a place to them as it was to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 But, mint, that's to do with stress and not pronunciation. French is the same. In broad terms, in French, each syllable in a word carries equal weight or stress, except if you're angry, surprised or otherwise expressing strong emotion. English, however, is a totally different affair. You've even got words that are pronounced differently just so people know whether you're using them as a noun or a verb....increase, decrease, produce, present, Polish/polish, wound...off the top of my head. And in all those cases, it's simply where you place the stresss which makes the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted November 16, 2017 Share Posted November 16, 2017 defect, contrast, research..............I know and I hear native speakers make mistakes everyday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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