"On weekends, the children come and go."
Translation:Le week-end, les enfants vont et viennent.
16 Comments
The answer is out of order from the question. Why is viennent et vont not acceptable?
Aller et venir is the regular idiomatic order in French. In English, we say "come and go". In French, we say "va et vient" or in this case, "vont et viennent." "Aller" always comes first.
Interesting assumptions behind the word order!
It reminds me of a sentence on my "head-scratcher" list:
«Elle rentre chez elle pour une visite» - "She is coming back home for a visit" https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/13604398
(Brain candy....)
Why is it 'Le week-end'? Why not 'Les Week-ends' ?
What if I want t say 'on MULTIPLE weekends'. What's the French translation for this?
On (multiple) weekends, the children come and go.
I imagine it's like, "je bois du lait le matin" or "je marche le matin." I was wondering the same thing until I thought of those usages.
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I thought "Le week-end" meant "The weekend" at first. I guess I better get used to its real definition!
That is what it means, but it is being used her as a generic for any given weekend, like an English "In the morning I brush my teeth" to refer to something that happens in each of many mornings
As a grandmother, I understand the English sentence this way: My grandchildren live with their parents, but on weekends they often come and go (so they pay me several short visits).
Is the French expresion «vont et viennent » so demanding that no one is allowed to change its order even if the order of facts suggest to do it? Thanks in advance to answer
The order of facts is subjective. If you are the parents the children go and come!
it is that that I say. Their parents will say «the children come and go» but i'd say «the children go and come» Why do we have to say the same thing if the thing is different in each case?
I don't care much if we say it the other way around, the direct translation is still correct with the same meaning and I don't think I should be penalized for it.
it is like the angels ascending and then descending Jacob's ladder-you would think they would have to descend first!!
