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- "Il se regarde dans le miroir…
54 Comments
239
honestly, if he looks in the mirror, chances are he's looking at himself, which is why i left that tidbit out
In this case it's not about "chance", it's about the fact that the French sentence includes the indirect object, therefore it must be translated so as not to lose meaning.
One of the big dilemmas in translation is where to interpret meaning (if a direct translation doesn't exist, if the direct translation is not something that would commonly be spoken in the new language, etc.) and when to use the direct translation. The general preference is to try and preserve as much meaning as possible and use direct translations wherever possible, and in this case, the direct translation is both grammatical (with regards to English grammar rules) and something that wouldn't be weird to say in English, therefore the indirect object should be included. The main reason why it's specified is because you can look at anything in the mirror that isn't necessarily you, such as if you see someone standing behind you in the mirror or you're looking at yourself but then suddenly you start looking at something that caught your attention in the mirror. It's not as odd as you might think.
These verbs are known as "reflexive" verbs because they require an indirect object which "reflects" the subject pronoun to work correctly. There are some verbs where they have both a reflexive and a regular form (where the reflexive form is when you're doing the action to yourself with no direct object and the regular form is where you're doing the action to the direct object), but I don't know if this is the case with « se réveiller ».
Basically, if the verb is reflexive it means that you don't add the indirect object to the English translation, but in the case of « regarder », since it's not reflexive, the indirect object gets included.
405
yes, but he could be looking in the rear view mirror, looking in the mirror to see what someone else is doing, etc etc
280
Then it should be added as a correct answer. I got a heart ripped out for this! (Didn't make a remark yet, as I wasn't sure.)
1078
"He looks in the mirror" should be accepted, as that is what you would usually say in English" The reflexive pronoun is usually understood rather than explicit in English, unless the context suggests otherwise.
886
It brought to mind the Irish crom, meaning bent or crooked (as in Crom Cruach) so almost antonymish to what cromulent turns out to actually have been created as.
Or also maybe a portmanteau of crom and crapulent, which could perhaps have had the definition 'bent over due to excessive drinking'.
206
But you are only assuming it in that sentence, while the French sentence is precise with the reflexive pronoun, it's not assuming anything.
There are many homophones in the course, some of which have been granted a special filter for the "type what you hear" exercise. This probably is the case here where the original sentence was in the singular and the homophonous plural is accepted as well.
But in translation, the singular "il se regarde" (he watches himself) should not translate to the plural "they watch themselves" (ils se regardent).
"They look at him in the mirror" cannot be a translation for the plural version because it is the translation for "ils le regardent dans le miroir"
886
That would likely be "il regarde le miroir, lui même", and/or other word orders of that, which can have lui même in a different position.
780
No, il se regarde means he is looking at himself (and nobody else). He is looking at him (another person) translates to il le regarde.