Jump to content
Complete France Forum

for Florence


mint

Recommended Posts

Great to have you on the forum![:)]  Someone to answer our "French" questions.

Some context...

I was watching an old French film where a secretary was late for work and the boss was waiting a bit impatiently for her.  She came in and started fiddling about taking off her coat and gloves.  He wanted her to start work getting out a file.....I said it was an old film, didn't I?

She said Attendez!  Je ne suis pas encore arrivée.

At the time, I only knew one meaning of arriver and I couldn't make out why she said she hadn't arrive when she was already there!

Later, I took that to mean.....I am not quite there yet.

So I used that the other day in my nordic walking group (all French) when everyone was starting to walk but I was still getting my sac à dos on.  I said Attendez!  J'suis pas encore arrivée!  (in the sense of I am not ready to start).  So far so good, until a music teacher (with whom I mostly talk music but sometimes French language) asked me to explain what I meant.

So I explained to her as I have done here.  Don't know if she was convinced.  We often have great long discussions and neither of us could agree on the conclusion.

Does anybody use that construction?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, id, I say j'arrive as well; usually when my neighbour is ringing my bell and waiting for me to walk to the gym together.

Another one I use is:  j'ai beau fait j'arrive pas à.......whatever it is that I haven't done and don't like to sound like I didn't even try...lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...