"What a tall boy he is!"
Translation:Quel grand garçon il est !
56 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I'm trying to figure it out myself, but something I think is helpful is remembering that quel/quelle is in front of a noun or modifies it. For the most part, you will use quel/quelle for every exclamation. Que is always the object of a question (the target of the verb, not the subject performing the verb).
You're trying to translate word by word, which rarely leads to an accurate translation, and often to absurd sentences. Please understand that different languages have different mechanisms. I agree that sometimes English and French work the same way, but sometimes not.
"Quel" = "What a" or "what" or "which"
All these are correct, but their use depends on the type of sentence (exclamation, interrogation, statement...) and on the context.
- "Quelle heure est-il ?" = "What time is it ?"
- "Quelle femme magnifique !" = "What a beautiful woman !"
- "Dites moi quel jour je dois venir." = "Tell me which day I must come."
Nope, it's correct common French, and is used by French native speakers. I agree that it may not be right according to the Académie Française, but common French has nothing to do with the French they stand for so...
If you want to fight against Anglicism you would have to change almost the entire common French these days. It's a lost cause.
990
Not really. In parts of France the plural 'quels' is enunciated in a slightly more elongated way, but it's very subtle.
2052
You are at a school yard watching children play, talking with another parent about the decline of western civilization as reflected in children's behavior. You say...Quel grand garçon il est. Now the other parent knows you have switched to talking about a particular child who is in your field of awareness. He/she looks to see who you are referring to.
Why does the other parent notice that you are suddenly talking about a particular child. Because you added il est to the end of your sentence. It is not incorrect to concentrate awareness or shift focus if that it is your intent. There are a number of ways of doing so and this is one of them.
northernguy, I have somewhat different question, and I would appreciate if you could give your opinion on it. We would say, for example, "C'est un grand homme." instead of "Il est un grand homme.". Why then we wouldn't say "Quel grand homme c'est !" instead of "Quel grand homme il est !"? Is it really the case that we would use "c'est" instead of "il est" only when it directly precedes the noun, and not when it is placed after the noun to which it refers? Only if this is the case, it can make sense.
(I have referred here to the following link http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/cest-versus-il-elle-est)
2052
KristianCRO
That is a very good question. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer.
Hopefully, someone else will come up with something.
The very reason I have even mentioned it is that such an answer (with "c'est" instead of "il est") is actually offered here (in "multiple choice" type of exercise), and if you choose it, you're marked wrong. I haven't seen so far anyone referring to this issue previously here on discussion pages. As you say, hopefully indeed someone can say something about it in the future.
Your proposition is not correct French.
"Que" is an interrogative pronoun, "quel" is an interrogative adjective.
I think you might need those links to understand better how questions work in French :
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/pron_interrog.htm
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/questions.htm
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_interrogative.htm
http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adverb_interrogative.htm
here says that the adjective is placed before the noun, when the adjective is figurative. so, why is it "quel grand"? http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/adjectives_4.htm
No. "chaud" is not used for handsomeness in French.
However, it can mean "horny" (sexe) or "warmed up" (sports).
It can also be used for different things in familiar French :
"je suis chaud(e)" :
- "I'm motivated" (to do something which we talked about in the discussion)
- "I'm on a (winning) streak"
- "I'm skilled"
"C'est chaud !" = "It's difficult !"
Exclamative adjective "quel" is here also a "determiner", and it cannot be used with yet another determiner for the same noun (for example with definite or indefinite article). It would be same as placing both "le" and "un" before one and the same noun. You only need one determiner. http://french.about.com/od/grammar/a/determiners.htm
No, "haut" is not more appropriate. To describe people, we use "grand".
"haut" can be used for objects, and has other uses as well.
Have a look at this link to know more about "haut" (don't worry we don't use all the different meanings in common French) :
http://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/haut
(I'm answering in English so everyone can understand what we're talking about. Your sentence is almost correct, just replace "appropriable" with "approprié".)