I know I should now but.......

[Pads]

this is just part of the sentance as its quite long :

et le gros-Horlage qui date du XV1 ème siêcle

and the large clock that dates from the 16th century

Now shouldnt that of been DE not DU I thought DE was of/ from and and DU was any/ some or have I got that wrong [8-)]

Also:

On l'appelle le metro bus car une partie du reseau est souterraine .

we call the metro bus because ONE goes from the network east underground

I dont understand the use of ONE here should it not be On ? =One 

Many thanks [:)]  

[cooperlola]

Du = de + le  (from the)

One calls it the metro bus because part of it runs/some of its network is underground - or as one would say in English "It is called the metro bus..."

[Pads]

Many thanks

[Clair]

[quote]et le gros-Horlage qui date du XV1 ème siêcle[/quote]

should be "et la grosse horloge qui date du XVIème  siècle"

and the large clock that dates from the 16th century

[quote user="Pads"]Now shouldnt that of been DE not DU I thought DE was of/ from and and DU was any/ some or have I got that wrong [8-)][/quote]

"du" means "de le" (=from the), where the following noun is masculine. Were the following noun feminine, you would use "de la".

[quote]On l'appelle le metro bus car une partie du reseau est souterraine .[/quote]

we call the metro bus because part of the network is underground

[cooperlola]

You are welcome.  I think "on l'appelle" is a really useful phrase to learn as you'll find you use it a lot when you're living here and explaining English to a French person!  As in "En anglais on l'appelle...."[:)]

[Pads]

[quote user="Clair"][quote]et le gros-Horlage qui date du XV1 ème siêcle[/quote]

should be "et la grosse horloge qui date du XVIème  siècle"

and the large clock that dates from the 16th century

[quote user="Pads"]Now shouldnt that of been DE not DU I thought DE was of/ from and and DU was any/ some or have I got that wrong [8-)][/quote]

"du" means "de le" (=from the), where the following noun is masculine. Were the following noun feminine, you would use "de la".

Yes thats right but I was coping this from a text book ! ? Is my book wrong ? clock is fem !!

[quote]On l'appelle le metro bus car une partie du reseau est souterraine .[/quote]

we call the metro bus because part of the network is underground

[/quote]

[Clair]

une horloge (fem)

unless the texte refers to a clock called "le gros-Horlage"

[cooperlola]

Yes, Clair is right and the book is wrong, imo!  (Never trust anything you read in a text book...[Www])

Simultaneous posting Clair - but I didn't think of that, C.

[Pads]

Yes it does say le gros-Horloge , why have they done that ? 

does it make any difference that siècle is Masc ?

[cooperlola]

Is it talking about Rouen, Pads?

[cooperlola]

As in:

http://www.dboc.net/rouen/oc_rouen_gros_en.php

[Pads]

Yes ?? How did you know that ?

[cooperlola]

Ha!  See above.

[Pads]

Ha mystery explained ..... you are so clever [:)]

[cooperlola]

Not really.  Rouen is one of those cities which I love and have done since childhood.  If the clock had been in Carca you'd have lost me!

[Pads]

No my teacher likes to teach me french while teaching me facts about history, culture and geography at the same time which is much more interesting than where mrs bloggs goes shopping ... etc.... and is actually helping me to remenber a lot better too

[Pads]

La vieille ville vaut peine d'être visiteé

The old town is worth of to be visited ??

Where have I gone wrong here this dosnt look right ?

Many thanks

[Clair]

The old town is worth visiting

The old town is worth a visit

The old town is worthy of a visit

[cooperlola]

There's a bit of a trick which you are missing here, Pads.  You've translated all the individual words into English, then you have to translate the English into English, if you get my drift.  Then you'll end up where Clair sent you!

[Pads]

But isnt  worth and worthy spelt diffrently in french ?[8-)]

I do try to play with the words/ sentances ...... but I worry i might go to far off the track

I also thought ... but have just checked and seen I was wrong  that vistée was the past tense of visiter ... but its not so what does visitée mean ?? why is it writen like that when to visit is visiter ?

[cooperlola]

The key thing here, Pads, is that if you translate directly then you end up with the third of Clair's options - which (you know just by looking at it) is not the kind of English thee and me would use every day.  The trick to good translation into your mother tongue is not to get too worried as to how the French is constructed, but think about how your own language is written and spoken.

For instance - if you were to translate the phrase "j'ai faim" into English, you might well come up with "I have hunger/hungry" - but you would not say that in a million years.  It's "I'm hungry."  You are translating the meaning of the sentence here - not the individual words.  Just look what internet translation software does to English and you can see the result of forgetting the point of the exercise - to convey the same meaning in both languages in simple, comprehensible terms.

Thus : don't get hung up on what each word means - because they don't always have a direct translation - as you know when you try to do it the other way round!

[Clair]

Pads,

As Coops says, you cannot translate word for word and expect it to make sense [:)] (If that was the case, web translation sites would not be free to use!)

The last sentence is probably the least likely to be used, but all three give the same idea.

[Clair]

If I do a translation, I tend to translate the rough or general sense first, ironing out the obvious, then leave the text alone for a few hours or overnight and after that break, I read the translation in the language it it written.

The correct turn of phrase usually comes to mind  as soon as I read the "fresh" text.

I do not always have the time to do that and invariably kick myself the following day (as Coops can attest to...[Www])

[cooperlola]

Clair, whatever you do, it works!

The other point about this, Pads, is that once you start reading longer French texts (such as newspapers, books etc), if you look too closely at each word, you'll find it takes you forever and you'll begin to find it frustrating and dull.  Whereas, if you read and just ignore the words you don't understand, you'll be amazed at how much of the general meaning you can glean and after a while, stuff will sink in which you hadn't even realised you knew.  The same goes for talking to French people.  If you stop to think about what an individual word was which you didn't quite catch, the person will have finished what they are saying and be standing open mouthed waiting for an answer, whilst you're still grappling with a possibly insignificant part of the sentence.

Of course I realise that this is different when you're doing an academic exercise, but the key thing remains - to be understood and to convey the correct meaning - in both languages.

[Pads]

Yes I know your both right but Im so worried about missing some thing that I scrutinise every word mainly to check im in the right tense to start with. .... weather we are talking about he she it  blah blah blah.... once Im more sure of my self it will be easier im already surprised how much I just translate already with out reaching for my dictionary or computer , these have been 3 sentances out of 3 pages today. [:)]

Many thanks to you both again[:)]