please clarify

[yong leong]

Salut  tout le monde,

     'respectons nous les uns les autres'  please give me the meaning.  When I use the Reverso internet translator I don't get the correct sentence.  Merci encore Neil if you are there to do the translation.

     Ps :  this french phrase sounds strange to me;  I think it means , Let's respect the one the others, but doesn't make sense.

[Erwan]

Hi,it means "let's respect each other".

 

[Neil Coffey]

Possibly the best way to understand this is to break it down. The first thing to realise is that what are often called "reflexive" verbs don't actually necessarily carry a reflexive meaning. For example, as here, they can carry a reciprocal meaning-- the equivalent of one antoher, each other in English.

 

So in French, ils se sont blessés could theoretically mean they hurt themselves (reflexive) or they hurt each other (reciprocal). Similarly, respectons-nous could theoretically mean "let's respect ourselves", "let's show some self-respect" or "let's respect one another, let's show some respect for one another".

 

Usually from the context it is clear which you mean and there's no actual ambiguity. But it is possible to add l'un l'autre or les uns les autres to emphasise the "each other" meaning. Where the syntax requires it, this can end up being l'un avec l'autre, les uns aux autres etc.