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- "On ne peut pas juger un livr…
"On ne peut pas juger un livre sur sa couverture."
Translation:You can't judge a book by its cover.
66 Comments
534
They mean something different. This is a statement of fact, while your answer is advice or a command.
534
One is a statement of fact, the other is an instruction. "Don't eat my cookie" isn't something I'd say unless you can, and I don't want you to (because I want to eat it, because it's poisoned, who knows?) "You can't eat my cookie" is totally different (maybe I already ate it, maybe it travelled to another dimension, who knows?)
615
I don't think that follows in context. The implication here is that you can judge a book by its cover, and that people do, but they shouldn't.
534
No, that's not right. The implication is that if you try to judge a book by it's cover, you'll fail, because the cover doesn't have the information needed to judge the book. So you cannot judge a book by it's cover, even if you try.
2273
The statement in French is not a command or an admonition. It is simply a statement in the form of a proverb. That is to say, "one cannot judge a book by its cover". There is nothing at all here that makes this an imperative "should" or "must" or "don't".
423
Yup, frequently useful, and people will slow down. I found the French in general and Parisians in particular quite friendly and helpful with my halting French, contrary to what I had been told to expect. Waiters, shop assistants, people on the street, everyone seemed most genial. I could hardly take a map out of my bag without someone coming up and asking if they could help. (No, I'm not a pretty young thing <g>)
2273
Actually it could be expressed as "à sa couverture", "par sa couverture", "d'après sa couverture", or "sur sa couverture". All are accepted.
2273
It's a common one. And it's opposite number is also a common expression: L'habit fait le moine (or) l'habite fait l'homme = Clothes make the man. It's funny how proverbs work that way.
2273
Actually, it is completely wrong. "It's" is a contraction of "it is". The possessive form does not use an apostrophe: i.e., its cover.
2273
Not at all. "Sur" is not translated as EN "on" here. It is an expression: sur sa couverture, à sa couverture, d'après sa couverture, par sa couverture = by its cover.
423
I think she meant that she looked for the frequency of the English sentence on Google and discovered it was not very common and then was surprised that DL had her "not-very-common" version in its database. I'm a bit surprised myself. You just never know.
2273
No. The possessive form of "it" is "its" (no apostrophe). "It's" is a contraction of "it is".
the english idiom that is the equivalent of this is as dapetras says is "Don't judge a book by its cover." I don't think we should be marked as incorrect for using the normal english phrase. I think the explanation as to why you can't do this is pedantic and another example of imposing french structure on normal English: something that drives me wild!