22 Comments
You are my ray of sunshine is idiomatic engish. This sunbeam stuff is nonsense.,
sunbeam from now on! lol You are my sunbeam my only sunbeam You make me happy when skies are grey etc :)
I'm pretty sure that even if this is not an idiom in French, it still has a poetic nature to it and is quite well understood by native French speakers. Par example, "you are my light".
46
How would you say radius of the sun? Would it be just "rayon de soliel" without a possessive pronoun attached?
It actually depends. If it refers to the/a ray of sun then it is "le rayon de soleil." But if there is a qualifier, as in the example "les deniers rayons du soleil." then it's "du" instead of "de". Hard for me to explain but there's a nuance: The sun ray, or a ray of sun,(de soleil) versus, "the last ray of the sun." (du soleil.)
Someone might think you are talking about a kind of fish (manta ray, par exemple). "Sun's rays" or "ray of sunshine" or "sunbeam" but outside of poetic license, perhaps, it's not a word in English.
I'm not a native english speaker, but would "ray of sun" not work? Aside from the idiomatic expression, wouldn't it be understood?
It would be understood without any trouble. But even though people think of the sun as having rays, and "ray of sun" is regularly used as a caption under photographs, in lyrics, and in headlines, "you are my ray of sun" when said to a beloved feels like broken English. It is much better to use "ray of sunshine" in that case.
It generally sounds better if you use "ray of sunshine" or "sunlight". Never "ray of sunbeam"! A sunbeam is the same as a ray of sunlight.
Ok, so supposing I am actually calling someone this... "tu es un rayon de soleil"... but what if they were female? Does "un" become "une" or does it stay the same?
A word to word translation is funny for someone who knows both languages. I think this app just teaches more vocabulary than grammar
