- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "Il pleut la nuit."
60 Comments
The French don't use a preposition for night, day, evening and such periods. Je dors la nuit. Je me prépare le matin. Je rentre chez moi le soir. etc.
I love it when I come to the comment section, and the first comment I read is the perfect answer to my question, which I didn't even have to ask! Thanks Yuugen :)
This sentence seems strange. Where did the "at" come from. The literal translation would be "It rains the night".
290
For a similar usage, recall "Nous marchons le samedi" = "We walk on Saturdays". The use of the definite article in these cases does not translate literally into English. This formation implies something that happens at a particular time on a regular basis.
Yes. I just wanted to add that if you say 'nous marchons samedi" that means "we walk on (THIS) Saturday."
More accurate translation would "it rains at night [here]." For instance if you arrive in Paris, your host mother tells you that "il pleut la nuit." Bring a rain coat because it happens often.
Finally! Something that makes perfect sense to me in English! I am Scottish and we say "It is raining the night". I have no issue with "the", though with some of the rest of the rest of the lessons, I can't quite say the same! ; )
"It is raining at night" is incorrect, only "it rains at night" is correct here. For something that happens regularly or habitually we must use the present simple UNLESS we use a word like "lately" to qualify that it is a recent change.
In that case, how would one write 'it is raining at night'? Wouldn't the sentence also use the simple present tense, since French doesn't have (as far as I know) a present continuous tense?
Btw, this is a serious question, not an attack on what Arya Stark wrote.
But think of a situation in which you would want to say "it is raining at night", it's not natural, native usage. If you're a native speaker, think of a situation in which you'd want to say "it's raining at night", you'll probably naturally want to stick in a "right now" or "nowadays", which is ok, but you'd never use it on it's own. I just left the note for people who are also learning english, so they understand that the two tenses are not 100% interchangeable, they're used for specific purposes, and in certain cases only one is correct. http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-use.html http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-continuous-use.html
I totally agree with you. I might say"It is raining tonight" but I don't think I'd ever want to say "It is raining at night".
Hi Arya, Thanks you to post the note that can be useful for me. I am also learniing English. You have a great affection for learner.
I did that, too, and the system told me the correct answer was "It rains overnight."
I think this might be a case where the word needed for the literal English translation is understood in the French colloquialism
I noticed this in French (also in Spanish). They don't say "in/at" the night, the day, etc.. I've encountered these kinds of sentences. I've been making mistakes on these sentences until I read Yuujen's comment.
- 272
As a native speaker of Spanish I'm confused by your comment, because prepositions ARE used...? I would never say "llueve la noche". The correct translation of this in spanish would be something like: Llueve POR/EN/DURANTE la noche.
I didn't mean to confuse anybody by my comment, that was posted months ago. I don't remember why I said "also in Spanish." That time I was really confused. I can see my mistake on my comment. I meant that in Spanish, I NOTICED it doesn't use "on" when talking about the DAYS OF THE WEEK.
e.g Duermo LOS viernes.
I keep putting "en/por" before "los" but Duo told me, it's wrong. No preposition was needed. (If I'm wrong again, blame Duo)
Sorry I messed it up.
Thanks for sharing :)
- 41
I don't see how her comment addresses the use of "tonight". In fact, "it is raining tonight" seems most natural to me with the equivalent meaning.
How would you translate "it is raining tonight" into French?
Sorry, I overlooked that. I was just referring to the tense.
As for your question, I guess I would just translate it as: "Il pleut ce soir."
- 913
How about "The night is rainy"? I'm trying to get a handle on the sense here. "It is raining at night" is not good English, "It rains at night" is better.
- 2099
Cos "pleuvoir" is a verb that translates to "to rain" in English.
"rainy" is adjective that we haven't learnt yet.
The English translation is awkward though, I reported an error asking them to fix it, noting that present simple tense and present continuous tense are not 100% interchangeable, and this is one of those cases.
- 290
I have to cut in here: "Pleurer" is "to cry", whereas "to rain" is "pleuvoir". These are two completely different verbs and they are conjugated differently. They probably have a very similar etymology, but they are not the same.
- 2099
sorry for that mistake mate, and thanks for correcting me.
I've edited the post above to the correct verb, so anyone reads it in the future, learns it right
Why isnt it rains every night not a correct translation can somebody please explain? :(
I know the word PLEUT means rain, but doesn't it also mean TO CRY? How can I differentiate the two?
I think you're confusing it with pleurer, and I don't think any of its conjugations are spelt "pleut". There's a list here: http://www.wordreference.com/conj/FRverbs.aspx?v=pleurer
- 2043
But when you're listening, Il pleure la nuit, is what it sounded like. If that is what was said, couldn't it mean He cries the night?
shouldn't it be "Il pleut a nuit" ? Doesn't that make more sense. The "la" makes no sense to me. "It rains the night" is what I immediately think.
Could this also mean "The night rains"or "The night is raining" too? Just curious^^
- 290
No, because of the "il". The verb "pleut" refers to the pronoun "il" rather than "la nuit". Your English sentences sound quite poetic, however :)
- 290
I am guessing that "il pleut ce soir" or "il pleut cette nuit" would work, but I am not sure; I have never heard a native speaker say them. It's the kind of sentence you would put in a letter or say on the telephone, but you wouldn't say it to someone face-to-face because it would already be obvious to them. In English we would say "it is raining tonight", but either way it is an uncommon thing to say. --- Does anyone else know if my guesses are correct? Do they sound natural to native French speakers?
- 290
i just googled "il pleut ce soir" and "il pleut cette nuit" and came up with ample evidence that these are both grammatically correct and in common usage: blog posts, weather reports, and especially used with "si", as in "si il pleut ce soir, restez chez vous".
- 290
I never used Google Translate. I searched the internet, using the google search engine, for the phrases "il pleut ce soir" and "il pleut cette nuit". I came up with innumerable hits for both phrases on French language websites, as I mentioned above. My answer to Cdeloy's question remains valid. Thanks for trolling.
Did anyone else try clicking on the mic icon and then the listen icon when you re feeling lazy? :)
Can someone please conjugate "pleuvoir"?
Duo only showed "il/elle/on - pleut"
Merci :)
That's it! There's no je/tu/nous/vous variant for "pleuvoir". http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pleuvoir#Conjugation
- 2099
'la nuit' means "the night" or "every night"
'tonight' is specified and it means "this night"; so the French for it "ce soir", literally translating to "this evening"
"It is raining at night" is incorrect, only "it rains at night" is correct here. For something that happens regularly or habitually we must use the present simple UNLESS we use a word like "lately" to qualify that it is a recent change.
Copied from a post at the start of this thread, written by Arya Stark
Why are we suppose to give literal translations for some, and common speak translations for others? Would be most helpful if it was told which one to use.
- 100
I understand the habitual sense of the construction, but the sentence does not really fit the case. "It rains at night" (regularly) is what is intended, but that's not true. It rains at night sometimes. And it rains during the day - sometimes. So I agonised over whether the present continuous was appropriate...
