- Forum >
- Topic: French >
- "Elle fait un pas dans le jar…
54 Comments
2266
Lawless tells us that it is a very high register. So don't expect to hear a liaison following the verb here. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-pronounce-optional-liaisons-french-4083604
I would also like to know. If you say entrer dans it clearly means enter INTO. However, I cannot tell if the sentence here, which doesn't use entrer, means INTO (i.e. from outside to inside e.g. the garden) or IN (as in, within)? There must surely be ways in French to illustrate these different concepts.
152
I've translated it as "she's making a step in the garden" and it was accepted. I thought she's actually building one step, he he. Your translations make much more sense. Thanks.
613
I believe that jardin is the equivalent of what we in the UK call "the garden" and our cousins in the US call "the yard", ie those parts of a domestic plot which are not built upon.
Of course, both "garden" and "jardin" are also used for what the Americans call "a garden", ie an area which is used to cultivate flowers and other plants.
I think that some Americans believe that their "yard" translates as "une cour" in France, but I believe that this inaccurate.
In my (limited) experience une cour is a courtyard, a typically quite large, typically rectangular area, which although it might have grass borders and decoration, is not laid to grass but typically paved in some way.
The majority of French residences are not grand enough to have une cour.
I'm an American, and for me a "yard" is the area surrounding one's house which is covered with grass (a lawn). A garden is where one grows flowers, plants and/or vegetables.
And you could have a yard (a grassy area) which is also a garden because there are flowers and plants.
Other Americans may disagree, but that's how I see it.
405
Yes, for us, a garden is the specific area in which flowering plants and/or food plants have been deliberately cultivated, usually in rows. Usually, our gardens are part of our yards, a specific part set aside for this deliberate cultivation.
337
A variety of English translations should be accepted. It may be the correct transliteration but we wouldn't say this. (Maybe for a poem?)
499
Thanks, C.J. - I was seeing "pas" as the end of a "ne ... pas" construct and thinking this was just some sort of inscrutable idiom. Knowing that "pas" means "step" will help a lot!
613
My initial assumption was that "faire un pas" covered not only "she takes a step into the garden" but also "she takes a step around the garden". But now I am beginning to doubt that assumption! Does it mean a single step and only a single step?