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- "Elle fait un pas dans le jar…
54 Comments
Yes, and "un pas" is "a step", such as in "un faux pas": "a false step" / "a misstep" / "a mistake".
"She takes a stroll in her garden" would be "Elle se promène dans son jardin"
@nz6s, In "fait un pas"- why isn't the 't' being pronounced in "fait" since the next word "un" starts with a vowel sound.
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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 think the meaning is, that she stepped from outside the garden area to inside the garden area. Nothing to with a stroll or walking.
Yes, it's entirely about the transition, the same as the sentence about stepping into the street.
How do we differentiate "She takes a step (with)in the garden" and "She takes a step in(to) the garden" here? Can « dans » simply be either meaning here?
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.
Perhaps "faire un pas dans" always means "(to take a) step INTO, just like dans following entrer always means to enter INTO. Perhaps someone is able to confirm or correct me on this? And if correct, how's someone explain how to say "to take a step (with)in" e.g. the garden? Big thanks!
Sorry - couldn't make out "pas" in the audio - thought it was about her making a loaf in the garden. . . Quelle stupide!
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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.
NOW I’m confused, because “she makes a step in the garden” was NOT accepted... ????
We might well say that sentence, but it would mean that she was making (=building) a step (noun, = a thing to step up onto) in the garden. Which is not what the French sentence says.
So when does "pas" mean "thread" (It's one of duolingo's hover hints). I thought she was spinning a thread in the garden...
Asked before but still not answered: Could this be both stepping into the garden and making a step while in the garden? How would one differentiate between the two?
« Faire » means "to make" or "to do" so a gloss of this sentence would be "She makes/does a step into the garden". Note that as « pas » is a noun, the only verb in this sentence is « faire ».
Would "she makes a step in the garden" work here? As in, she builds a patio step...I guess you would use "etape" for that?
If you want to translate every word into idiomatic English and retain the meaning you can say "She takes a step into the garden".
There is no way that this could be "She makes/is making a path in the garden, is there?
Is there some reason it cannot be translated as "She takes a step in the garden", where does it imply stepping into the garden?
I've always wondered, does jardin translate to the British or American meaning of garden?
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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.
Americans seem to say yard instead of garden - but I've no idea what an American garden would be!
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.
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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.
Thank you both so much, that is really interesting! We have flower beds for flowers and vegetable beds or a vegetable patch for veg.
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A variety of English translations should be accepted. It may be the correct transliteration but we wouldn't say this. (Maybe for a poem?)
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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!
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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?
This would make more sense if it translated as 'she took a few steps around the garden' - means she is strolling and reflecting on something.
