- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "Ne parlez pas de travail : n…
"Ne parlez pas de travail : nous sommes en vacances !"
Translation:Do not talk about work: we are on holiday!
25 Comments
135
Was this your question: http://i.imgur.com/I1wZ11m.jpg ?
There are several complaints above about "parlez" being the only accepted answer for this question. I'm fairly sure "parle", "parlons", and "parlez" should all be accepted here since there is no English to guide you.
135
Shouldn't the first half be "Ne parlons pas de travail" or, the second half should be "vous êtes en vacances"?
I was marked incorrect for answering "parlons" (on the drop down), but the sentence seems like there is a subject-disagreement between the first and second half.
The sentence is fine. "Ne parlons pas de travail" would translate more as "Let us not talk about work."
"Ne parlez pas de travail" is more like a general command/order towards other people. If you were talking to one person it would be "Ne parle pas..." Several..."Ne parlez pas" A group including yourself "Ne parlons pas..."
So if you were talking to two colleagues from work that you bumped into at a restaurant and they started talking to you and your wife about something at work, you'd respond "Ne parlez pas de travail: nous sommes en vacances!" - "Don't talk about work, we're on vacation!"
At least that's my take on it, maybe a native speaker has a better explanation.
135
I was more checking to make sure: "Ne parlons pas de travail: nous sommes en vacances" is correct.
I was given:
"Ne [----------] pas de travail: nous sommes en vacances"
And my options were various conjugations of parler, so I chose "parlons" because I think the sentence: "Let's not talk about work: we're on vacataion" makes sense.
The English word "job" needs an article (eg "a", "the", "that", "your" etc) but in the French sentence we are NOT given an article. So it's obviously better to use the word "work" (for "travail") , because it doesn't NEED an article.
It's always "a job" or "your job" etc, (which specifies whose/which job), but with "work", you can just say "work" on its own, which is far more vague. (It could be anyone's work, or just "work in general".)
Hope that helps!
Talking about work as a general concept or spiders as a whole category can be said "Ne parlez pas de (de+du) travail" and "Ne parlez pas d'araignées (de+des)", respectively.
Talking about your job or about specific spiders can be said "Ne parlez pas du (de+le) travail" and "Ne parlez pas des (de+les) araignées", respectively.
However, there is an overlap and out of context, "le travail" and "les araignées" can also be generalizations and as a consequence, "don't speak about work in general/spiders in general" can be said "ne parlez pas du (de+le) travail/des (de+les) araignées".