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Hi everyone!
I need to translate this :
In this article, I respond to John Smith's criticisms of my arguments concerning the evidential weight events best explained as miracles provide for theism.
So far I have this:
Dans cet article, je réponds aux critiques de John Smith de mes arguments à propos de la force probante fournie au théisme par les évènements qui s’expliquent mieux comme des miracles.
It's mostly the unwieldy nature of the French that I don't like (although the English is also a little unwieldy!). ;-) I don't like the two 'de' in italics - though maybe that's OK? - and I'm also wondering if there are ways I'm not seeing to make it neater and easier to follow.
Any thoughts very welcome! Thank you!!
Tags:
Hello,
Let's have a try:
Dans cet article je réagis aux critiques que John Smith porte sur ma thèse selon laquelle le théisme s'est nourri du poids et de la véracité des évenements perçus avantageusement comme des miracles.
otherwise in your sentence the first "d" is ok maybe you could expand the second one with ".... John Smith portant sur mes arguments de la force...."
Thanks Vedas. That's helpful. I like the "que JS porte sur ma these" part especially.
What kind of meaning does 'avantageusement' carry here?
And is using "je réponds" an OK alternative, do you think?
avantageusement is in a way expressing "best"
"je réponds" is fine
Great. Thanks!
Does 'portant' not need to agree with 'critiques' then?
I think I can answer my own question after doing just a little bit of research! ;-) "No!"
Yes, but IF portant needed to agree (which, from the examples I see here, it's clear it does not: http://www.linguee.fr/francais-anglais/traduction/portant+sur.html ) then it would be agreeing with critiques in my version of the sentence:
"Dans cet article je réponds aux critiques de John Smith portant sur mes arguments de la force probante..." etc.
ok right I didn't get it first, yes present participles are invariable
The difficulty with present participles is that they can be used as what are essentially 'ordinary' adjectives, in which case they agree as normal. But they can also be used as what we might call 'gerundives', i.e. essentially as verbs, in which case they don't agree. So you get examples such as:
Une étoile brillante/plus brillante que d'autres. ("normal" adjective; you could make it comparative/superlative, add other adjectives)
Une étoile brillant toute la nuit dans le ciel. ("verbal" use; you could effectively substitute "qui brille/brillait")
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