Choix

[Crack1]

Je vis ici par le choix.

Je ne vis pas ici par le choix.

J'étais né dans ce pays par le choix. [ It may be 'Je suis né dans ce pays ... ]

Je n'étais pas né dans ce pays par le choix. [ It may be ' Je ne suis pas né dans ce pays ... ]
I don't think all my French sentences are fine.

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I live here by choice.

I don't live here by choice.

I was born in this country by choice.

I was not born in this country by choice.

[ You were born in the USA/ France. However, it was not your decision or choice. ]

[People flee from their home countries and live in the USA, France, Germany, etc. So it is fine to say I don't live in the USA,France, Germany etc by choice.]

[Marc Vonhalmen]

"by choice" translates as "par choix"

Je vis ici par choix.
Je ne vis pas ici par choix.
Je suis né dans ce pays par choix.
Je ne suis pas né dans ce pays par choix.

The two last sentences are grammatically correct, however their meaning is quite strange. If you say "Je suis né dans ce pays par choix", it means that you took that decision BEFORE your birth.... Or was it not YOUR choice but your parents' maybe?

"I was born" translates as "Je suis né". As French speakers, we also often make that mistake by saying "I am born" ;-)

[Crack1]

Marc
You were born in Switzerland.

To be borne as a human being in the country of Switzerland was not your choice.

You told me that you study Engineering; that is your choice.

As far as I am concerned, to say that I was not born in Switzerland by choice, sounds fine.

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By the way, another point crossed my mind.

6] I live in Switzerland.
7] I am living in Switzerland.

There is a difference in the meaning between the 6th and the 7th sentences.
How do you write this in French?
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[ I am duty bound to tell the difference between the two sentences.]
The 6th is the natural sentence to say that you live in Switzerland.
In the 7th your audience gets idea that you are planning to move to India/Norway/Kenya or some other country.

[Marc Vonhalmen]

6) would be translated as: Je vis en Suisse.
7) would be translated as: Je vis en Suisse actuellement (which means that you don't really know where you will be living in the future, but you know that it will probably not be in Switzerland) OR Je vis en Suisse pour le moment (this is the literal translation for "I am living in Switzerland for the moment")

Concerning the being-born-by-choice sentences, you surely know better than me if they sound fine in English or not, so I trust you when if you say they do. But in French, they really sound weird. When you say "par choix", it really means that you have thoughtfully considered this idea before realizing it, which is just impossible if you are not born yet.

[Pamela Kingfisher]

Crack do you mean, "au hasard", meaning it was by chance, or at random?
Pam
Il était au hasard que je suis née dans les États Unis.

or would it be aux États Unis???

[Neil Coffey]

aux États-Unis (generally use aux with plural countries).

For the first part, "by chance" would generally be par hasard, e.g.:

C'est par hasard que je suis née aux États-Unis

Also, par accident is quite common.

[Crack1]

Thanks Marc, Pam and Neil for the replies.

I am not an expert in these things. That is why I wrote the following:


As far as I am concerned, to say that I was not born in Switzerland by choice, sounds fine.
This is my opinion or rather the way I look at it.
I may be wrong here. Pam is a native English speaker. She knows nuances of English language better than all of us.

Marc says this sounds weird in French. I would agree with him.

As far as I am concerned French is the most beautiful language.
There are many people to disagree with me.
So I agree to disagree with them.

I have a smattering of French, Russian, Spanish, German and Latin.
French is the number one for me. The number 2 is Russian.
Latin too is an excellent language though I have a forgotten a lot.
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I know a person who went to the USA to study. She went there for her post-graduate studies. She got married and lives in the USA.

She says that she doesn't live in the USA by choice.

She met or rather got hold of a man; so it is fine to use the words by choice.

1. When you study if you plan to go to the USA for post-graduate studies and get marry a person there.

2. It would be all right to say that you live in the USA by choice.