French Language

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'm trying to augment my daily "duolingo" French lessons by reading  Le petit prince.

On p.16 I find this:

    - Alors, toi aussi tu viens du ciel !

confused about seeing both toi and tu, I fed it to google translate:

    Then you also come from the sky!

and back to French again:

    - Alors, tu viens aussi du ciel !

That last French sentence makes sense to me, but how does it differ in meaning from the original?

Views: 564

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

It feels to me as if "toi aussi" in in parentheses.

It serves to emphasise the "tu" which is the subject of the sentence.

It is a bit like a repetition of the subject (even though it comes first)

It is a very common expression so you should be prepared to come across it again.

"Lui aussi" ,"elle aussi" "nous aussi" etc can be used in the same way.

Google's "you also come from the sky" seems to imply other unmentioned possibilities : come from earth, from clouds, from water, etc.
But that's not the meaning of the French statement.

I propose these translations :
You too, you come from the sky.
You, also you, come from the sky.

(The implication is there are people or things like you, that also come ...)
It's exactly what George says, it only works as emphasing the "tu".
They talk about it here : http://www4.ncsu.edu/~dsbeckma/110Tutoiton.html
"They are used in a variety of situations in French, most often in short answers without verbs, for emphasis, or for contrast with subject pronouns".
A negative sentence, smth like "unlike you, he...", is translated "contrairement à toi, il..."

RSS

Follow BitterCoffey on Twitter

© 2024   Created by Neil Coffey.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service