Discuss and learn French: French vocabulary, French grammar, French culture etc.
French Vocab Games app for iPhone/iPad French-English dictionary French grammar French vocab/phrases
For the latest updates, follow @FrenchUpdates on Twitter!
I am trying to translate an awkward phrase from a play:
"A most degrading experience from which no young girl easily recovers"
the translation need not be comfortable or colloquial as I think the author may have meant it to be a bit awkward, but would either of these two be reasonable?
(note: I don't like to use "degradante" but the author wants the french to "sound" like the english to the non-french adressee, so I guess I need to leave it.)
Une expérience très dégradante dont une jeune femme ne se remet pas facilement.
or
Une expérience très dégradante de laquelle une jeune femme ne se remet pas facilement (this is the translation provided by the author - but, it sounds strange to me.)
?? thanks so much for any help
Tags:
So long it's referring to an actual "thing", then dont and duquel/de laquelle are essentially synonyms. However, one restriction is that at least some speakers nowadays avoid using dont to indicate a location of origin. So they wouldn't say, for example:
??J'ai vu la maison dont il vient de sortir.
So, it's a subtle point, but if the author wants to attribute a "spatial" value to something, then one way of doing it is to use duquel/de laquelle (or d'où) rather than dont. I don't know if that's what the author intended here.
© 2024 Created by Neil Coffey. Powered by