"Elle supprime mes vieux courriels."
Translation:She deletes my old emails.
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I'm wondering. The word email in English can be either a mass noun or a countable noun. Meaning "She is reading my email" can imply that she is reading a single email that I sent to her or that she has access to my email account and reading all of my email(s).
So "She is deleting my old email" Could mean she is deleting one email or all of my emails that are old.
Is there a similar usage with email or courriel in French? Or is courriel always used to refer to a single email?
If I understand correctly, you're asking if "courriel" can be used uncountably. I haven't been able to find any information either way.
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Can't "Elle" also be used for "It" and not just "She"? Like a software that removes or deletes my old emails...."It removes my old emails"
Note: Sitesurf has mentioned on another discussion board that the French usually use the word « e-mail » in France; « courriel » is more French Canadian! :)
"Supprimer" can be translated to a lot of similar words "delete" , "remove", "eliminate", and possible in a certain context "discard". But in the context of technology, software and computers, "to delete" is the go to English verb for removing a file from a computer and "supprimer" is the go to French verb.
I assumed the whole sentence was in plural, would that be Elles suppriment mes vieux courriels? Would it sound the same, or elisioned?
emails are referred to as messages often in English. There are many such instances as that in this particular unit, and I'm considering scrapping the course. referring to devoirs as assignments in translation was also marked incorrect. That's pathetic and obviously wrong. What does a teacher say in English when they want you to hand in your homework? Hand in your assignments.
The problem is one of exactness. While emails are messages, not all messages are emails. If I saw the English sentence, "She is deleting my old messages", my thoughts would assume that text messages are being deleted, or possibly voicemail messages, not emails.
When translating, your goal should be to preserve all the information in the origin language while still sounding natural in the target language. There are always synonyms and slang that come into play and some thoughts are almost untranslatable, so there is never one right answer, but when deciding between two possible translations, that both sound standard in the target language, always choose the translation that preserves the most information.
I'm with you on "assignments" as a translation of "devoirs" though. While "assignments" do not have to be "homework assignments", in a school context there is no loss of meaning. And, if you come across answers that you think should be accepted, report them, it's a learning process for the software as much as for the users.
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