Opinion

[Crack1]

Vous êtes la meilleure belle fille que je jamais ai rencontre.
[ You are the most beautiful girl I have ever met.]



Vous êtes la meilleure belle fille que je jamais ai vu.
[ You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.]

Are my French sentences correct.?
I know this is subjunctive in French. I am a bit uncertain.
I am telling you my opinion or rather an idea. It should be subjunctive.

[stella]

hello, this is the correction :
1- vous êtes la plus jolie fille que je n'ai jamais rencontrée.
2- Vous êtes la plus jolie fille que je n'ai jamais vue.
"most" doesn't mean "meilleur"
"the most" or adj+est is " le plus"
for example : the tallest = le plus grand
but "the best" is translated by "le meilleur"

[Crack1]

Thanks Stella

je n'ai jamais ----> This means I never.

[ Ne means never, I think.]

I want to say here ' I have ever met OR I have ever seen.

[stella]

yes, that the good translation, when you use "jamais" you have to use a negative form too, it doesn't mean you've never seen, or you've never met.
so to say the most pretty girl I have ever seen, you say in french la plus jolie fille que je n'ai jamais vue, this sentence means that you've never seen a most beautiful girl before.
I hope it's clear :-)

[Neil Coffey]

What Stella has suggested is a correct translation.

In English, a distinction is usually made between 'positive' and 'negative' pairs like "anything"/"something", "ever"/"never", "something"/"nothing" in a way that isn't always made in French.

So the words "jamais" and "rien", for example, can cover the meanings of English "ever", "something", as well as "never", "nothing". For example:

Avez-vous jamais vu...?
Have you ever seen...?

note that in this case, there is adistinction between jamais and ne ... jamais:

N'avez-vous jamais vu...?
Have you NEVER seen...?

Now, in the particular sentence in question, there's a slight complication. When a clause occurs after a comparative (or superlative) in French (especially when the main clause isn't a question), that clause tends to have ne inserted, even though the clause isn't strictly being negated. For example:

La maison est plus grande qu'elle NE paraît.
The house is larger than it seems.
Je suis moins riche que je NE l'étais.
I'm less rich than I was.

In these cases, the ne is essentially redundant: it doesn't mean "not" or indicate a negative in a strict sense. With a word like jamais it can look a bit confusing on the surface, but strictly speaking, it isn't the same as ne ... jamais the "true" negative.

[Crack1]

Thanks Stela and Neil

Don't you need the subjunctive form in this case?


How do you translate the following into French? I think it should be subjunctive.
You are best French teacher I have ever had.
[ Vous êtes la meilleure ...

[Crack1]

I mean the subjunctive form of the verb 'avoir' is a must when writing ' You are the best ....

Am I wrong?

[Neil Coffey]

Sorry, I missed the question about the subjunctive. The subjunctive is certainly common in this type of sentence, but in practice you'll also find variation, e.g. between "le meilleur .. que vous avez/ayez vu" and "...que vous n'avez/n'ayez jamais vu". It's generally reckoned that the subjunctive tends to emphasise the "uniqueness" being talked about in these cases (though I've not seen this argument based on an empirical study-- it tends to be the judgement of individual grammar writers).

Remember with "j'ai(e)" it's difficult to judge, because the pronunciation is nowadays identical for (practically?) all speakers.

[Crack1]

Thanks Neil

The subjunctive mood is used to express actions which are subjective: will/wanting, emotion, doubt, possibility, necessity, judgment. It is nearly always found in dependent clauses introduced by que or qui. The subjects of the dependent and main clauses are usually different.
[ I found the above on a website.]

It is my judgment that the girl in question is the number one. So it should be the subjunctive form.


Do you say we can always avoid the subjunctive form and write the indicative form?

3.C'est l'étudiante la plus intelligente que j'aie.
She's the smartest student I have.

4.C'est le meilleur repas que j'aie jamais mangé.
It is the best meal I have ever eaten.

I think the above sentences must follow the subjunctive form.

Could you rewrite the two sentences without the subjunctive form?

[Frank]

Could you rewrite the two sentences without the subjunctive form?


Here's a way:

Je n'ai jamais eu d'étudiante plus intelligente.

Je n'ai jamais mangé de meilleur repas.

("jamais" = "ever" here).

[Neil Coffey]

The subjunctive mood is used to express actions which are subjective: will/wanting, emotion, doubt, possibility, necessity, judgment. It is nearly always found in dependent clauses introduced by que or qui. The subjects of the dependent and main clauses are usually different.

This is the traditional view. I think it's a bit useless in this case. (Actually, I just think it's a bit useless...)

One criterion that some commentators recommend is to think about if you'd use words such as "ever", "really" in the English equivalent. The French subjunctive is roughly the equivalent of using English "ever", "really". For example, perhaps you can appreciate the difference in a case such as this:

C'est le livre le plus cher que le prof nous ait recommendé
It's the most expensive book that the teacher has ever recommended us (ever in our life)
C'est le livre le plus cher que le prof nous a recommendé
It's the most expensive book that the teacher has recommended us (out of some fixed list of books given on one occasion)

(Sentences adapted from Jones (1996), p. 194).

[stella]

just to correct a word, "recommended" is "recommandé". ;-)

[Frank]

"en" vs "an" is very confusing, even for native speakers, because they sound exactly the same.