gagner

[Pete Laubscher]

Looking up 'gagner' in Cassell's French Dictionary (8th ed, 1970), came across phrase 'la nuit nous gagnera' translated as 'night will overtake us'. But is 'gagnera' really 1st person plural? What about 'gagnerons'? Where have I gone wrong?

[Frank]

Hello Pete,

"gagnera" is 3rd person, singular. And you are right, the 1st person plural would be "gagnerons".

So what's wrong with "La nuit nous gagnera"?

Well, to tell the truth, nothing's wrong :)

The subject of the verb is "La nuit", which is singular. "Nous" is the object. And the verb should match the subject, so "gagnera" is the right form here.

Compare with:

Nous gagnerons le match (a "match" is a sport game).

Here, the subject is "nous" and the object (_what_ we are going to win) is "le match". It's why the verb is "gagnerons".

[Pete Laubscher]

Thank you. Oooops!

[Frank]

Pete, don't take it the wrong way, but maybe you really should get a newer dictionary. Even in order to read recent books and magazines, I'm not convinced that a nearly 40-years old dictionary is suitable.

Languages are constantly evolving. A lot of new words and expressions have been introduced or have gone mainstream in the last years (thanks to the Internet and to people moving a lot nowadays). Other words have been obsoleted. Other words and expressions don't mean the same thing as they used to mean. Grammar rules are also constantly changing.

People are catching up with these changes, but dictionary can't, except online ones.

[Pete Laubscher]

No not at all. In fact appreciated. Thank you. I rather like the hard copy stuff. So which dictionary would you recommend?

[Frank]

Hello Pete,

Recommending a dictionary is not easy, especially since comparing hard copies is more difficult than comparing electronic ones.

Are you looking for a French-English dictionary or for a pure French dictionary?

Larousse dictionaries have a solid reputation. And you can freely browse them online:

http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais
http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/anglais-francais
http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires

I guess the real hard copy stuff is based upon the same database. So try them online, if you like them you'll probably like the hard copy stuff, if you don't, go for another one :)

[Pete Laubscher]

Thanks a million!

[Neil Coffey]

Which dictionary is right for you is really a personal thing. You need to think about what your needs are, and how efficiently the various offerings help you fulfil those needs. For example:

- try and remember a problem/doubt that you had recently when reading French, or when having to translate something from/into French; how easily can you find the answer to your question?
- how much help does the dictionary give you with translating some of the words that you know are complex to translate ("could", "might", "back"...)
- how easily does the dictionary let you find translations for compounds such as "phone charger"
- how good a coverage does the dictionary have of concepts recently talked about, or concepts (modern or not) that you need to talk about, including ones that might be culturally specific ("se dépacser", "credit crunch", "on the NHS"...)

Especially if you take French to a higher level, you'll eventually also consider more linguistic criteria, such as whether you find the translations suggested by a particular dictionary to offer the kind of "insipration" that you need. Looking up a word such as, say, époustouflant, different compilers will offer suggestions such as 'amazing', 'incredible', 'breathtaking', 'mind-blowing' etc-- and in the kind of situations you use the language, you'll get a feel for which dictionary's suggestions best fit the types of text you work with.

[Pete Laubscher]

Thank you very much! As usual, very insightful. I shall certainly take your suggestions to heart.