help with a sentence from english to french

[Peter En]

Hi,

I was wondering if someone could help me with this sentence:

He tricked his class into believing that he was their friend:

I came up with....

Il fait croire à sa classe qu'il était un ami tout en étant au contraire

is my sentence right? I thought by the sense in english I would end up using the word "tricher" or anarquer but i couldn't really think of a way to throw it in.

thanks in advance

[Neil Coffey]

Just be careful at the end: tout en étant le contraire.

[Sou]

il faisait faussement croire à sa classe qu'il était leur ami

One can add an adverb to underline the notion of "trick", though I'd say "faire croire" already contains that idea.

[Gridou]

I think you could translate "tricked" by "duper" which is similar to "tricher" and "arnaquer" (but tricher is used for a game and arnaquer for money). Your sentence would be like this:

Il dupa sa classe en leur faisant croire qu'il était un ami.

By the way, don't forget to put the past simple in the French sentence (to translate "tricked").

[George Hunt]

I have thought about this for a few days now.I think I like "tromper" or "tricher" better than "duper" .
I think the idea of a card trick is what I would try to get across -the idea of playing a game on his class.

There is a difficulty (in my mind) of using an equivalent French construction to "into believing" (or "into anyverb -ing" - "such as ,for example "led into hoping" or "I am putting all my energy into hoping that") .
I suspect that this construction just doesn't exist in French.

If I did use "tromper" maybe I would say "Il a trompé/triché sa classe de manière à ce qu'elle croie qu'il etait leur ami"

[Gridou]

"Il a triché sa classe" is not correct in French, it doesn't mean anything, so use "tromper". As I said, we use "tricher" for a sport or a game. Ex: Il a triché au Monopoly.

[George Hunt]

thanks! I am a little confused though.If you can say "il m'a triché" why wouldn't you say "il a triché sa classe" ? Is it just used in restricted circumstances?

[Neil Coffey]

I'm not sure why you perceive a problem with using the passé composé here. The passé simple could obviously be used if stylistically that's what you wanted, but it's certainly not necessary (and essentially impossible in many contexts).

[Sou]

1) "Duper sa classe" ne se dit pas en français.

2) le temps de la phrase dépend du contexte (passé simple texte plutôt littéraire; passé composé ou imparfait suivant le reste du texte) instinctivement j'aurais mis un imparfait ou un passé simple.

3) pour ce qui est de la structure "into + V-ing", le français traduit souvent par un infinitif introduit par une préposition.

ex: "into hoping that" = à espérer que / "led into hoping"= m'a conduit à penser que

[Gridou]

Duper est un verbe transitif, donc je ne vois pas en quoi "sa classe" ne pourrait pas en être le COD... Certes, tu me diras, ce n'est pas très idiomatique, mais c'est correct.

[George Hunt]

I would like  to be able to say "

"Il a trompé sa classe à (leur) faire  croire qu'il   était   un  (leur) ami."

but I don't think  think it is allowed..

 

I think the construction "tricked into .... "  is a nice English  usage  that French hasn't learned to use.

[Sou]

You're right, it is not allowed; and you're also right we don't have that type of sturcture in French with prepositional verbs or at least, the number of prepositions associated with verbs is very limited.

If I may, I think your first suggestion -- notwithstanding tense and possessive -- was quite good actually.

[Neil Coffey]

It's interesting to note, though, that the construction with à could almost work if you were talking about a non-specific regular event rather than a specific occasion. It's probably not very natural in this case. But it would probably be more common in cases such as e.g.:

Il me fait peur à me regarder comme ça.

It's essentially the same construction you get in e.g.:

À le voir, on dirait qu'il ne se lave jamais.