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Groovy Lee
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HELP! Is there anyone who speaks fluent French?
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How many sentences do you need checked? My birth language is French. However, in Quebec we use a lot of Jargon so... and since I moved to the USA fifteen years ago, it may be a bit rusted too. :P
Google translate is only good for a base, but will only directly translate rather than translating the meaning. Does what you want translated have regional context, or must it represent of a particular geographic area? If so, then be specific with the request; much like English, French has many dialects.
Please do not trust Google Translate! The masculine/feminine accords might not be good.How much do you need translated? I'm a native French speaker and I'm also a translator. You can send me your sentences and I'll translate them for you :)
Thanks to all of you so much for this, you are saving me! One of the lead characters comes from a small island whose mother language is French. There's no particular geographical area. Here are the 6 sentences:1. We would like some coffee, please?
The translation I got was: Nous tenons un café, sil vous plait.
2. Is this THE Hailey? Translation I got: Est-ce le Hailey?
3. Let me know what you find.
4. How do you say?
5. The fire!
6. He grabbed me.
I appreciate all of your help in this. And again, if you know of a reliable site I can trust, please direct me to it. I'm learning how to speak French, but I'm in the very early stages:)
1- Go simple: Un café, s'il vous plaît . 2- without the context it's hard to say, but you emphasized on 'the' as it there's only one. I might be enclined to translate this way:
Est-ce que c'est le fameux Hailey en question?
3- is the person talking to many others or only one other?
Many people or being polite (someone you are not in familiar term with): Laissez-moi savoir ce que vous trouvez.
a friend: Laisse-moi savoir ce que tu trouves.
4- Comment dites-vous? (Plural or polite)
Comment dis-tu? (friend)
However, this isn't a complete sentence. Do you mean it as to make someone repeat what he said? or was it just the beginning of a sentence such as How do you say 'I love you' in French? Comment dites-vous 'I love you' (je t'aime) en Français?
If it is to make someone repeat? You could use simple again: Pardon?
or maybe Pouvez-vous répéter s'il vous plaît ?
and to a friend: Peux-tu répéter s'il te plaît?
5- Context again is everything. Do you mean as someone suddenly discovers that the fire is the solution, or as if someone is shouting that there's a fire.
If it's a sudden realization, I'd go with "Le feu!"
but if it is to call a fire, warn people of a fire, I'd go with "Au feu!" or "Un feu!"
6- Il m'a saisi.
This website (link below) isn't perfect, but you still get a good idea from it because they also have sentences translated with different meanings. As silly as it may sound I use it from time to time when I can't really think about how something is said.
http://www.reverso.net/text_translati...
6. "He grabbed me" could also be translated as "Il me saisit", depending on the tense & style you're going with.If the utterer is telling someone else about what that "he" did to them, "Il m'a saisi" will work — grammatically speaking, we narrate such experiences using the "passé composé" (it has more immediacy, and is kind of closer to the present tense than the more remote past/preterit).
If the utterer is narrating a story (for instance, a bard telling about their adventures), "il me saisit" may be a better choice, as it has more of a story-like quality.
Oh, my God. I never thought so much would be involved. This is great. Thank you G.G. and Yzabel, so much, and for the website. I'm going to use it religiously until I can do it on my own:) And the tip to "keep it simple" makes so much sense!And Zee, I still appreciate any help you can give:)
NP Groovy. I'm not saying the website I pointed out is better than Google, because it isn't. Yet, one thing I like to do when I use translators is to try the sentences in different ones, and compare. I also do it from one language to the other AND back. You'd be amazed how it can change the meaning entirely sometimes. :P
G.G. wrote: "1- Go simple: Un café, s'il vous plaît."I agree.
However, what kind of coffee do they order?
café noir - black coffee
café blanc - coffee with milk
café creme - coffee with cream
P'tit café - espresso
Noisette - espresso with warm milk (named after the colour of the hazel nut)
café lait - Latte
café Italien avec du lait chaud, pas de chantilly - a cappuccino with hot milk, not with whipped cream. I.e. if you order 'cappuccino', you get a weak coffee with whipped cream.
Oh My Lord! Do you know of a reliable site, Martyn?
Groovy, I'm with everyone here on the translations...but the best would be if you could send me the sentences you need translated INSIDE the paragraph where they are located in the story. Message it to me or send it all as an attachment to zeemonodee@gmail.com and I'll translate it for you within the context :)I can translate these right here but without the context, I might not be giving you the most accurate depiction so it's best if you could send the paragraphs in full to get the context.
I always read a work/book in full before even attempting to translate to get a feel for the context, the characters, their lifestyle, etc. For example, a white collar guy is not going to speak like a blue collar guy. You could give me a line of dialogue but without knowing which character it pertains to, I could do a not-perfect job of translating it because I lacked the context. So again, LOL, context is key.
Just wanted to point out:1. We would like some coffee, please?
The translation I got was: Nous tenons un café, sil vous plait.
The translation you got means "we are holding a coffee, please." Or it could mean 'we own/manage a coffee place/house, please', which basically, doesn't make sense, right? ;) (And this is how the please should be translated/written: s'il vous plait)
Oh, and I suppose Hailey is a girl/woman? In that case, the translation should've been: "Est-ce LA Hailey?" (feminine = la. Masculine = le)
Did you find a good translator? I can read French okay but can't speak it anymore. (Been almost 20 years since I last used it)Edit : nevermind . I have a seriously slow refresh rate on this phone (using mobile app.)
Groovy wrote: "Oh My Lord! Do you know of a reliable site, Martyn?"No, I use native speakers for foreign phrases (outside Dutch and English). I also speak German, some Italian, some Japanese, some Spanish, but not enough to put it with confidence in my books.
Groovy wrote: "Hello, EveryoneI have a new book coming out in a couple of weeks and I need help with a few of the French translations. Could you please direct me to a site that's reliable with their translation..."
From the context of the discussion, I presume your character is a French speaker and that the events take place in France?
Trust me; people will get it if you write the dialogue in English. Pierre ordering coffee in Paris will be understood to have done so in French.
I am certified with a working fluency in French, but it appears that you have a native speaker offering to help you out and that really is the best if you must use foreign phrases.
Zee wrote: "Oh, and I suppose Hailey is a girl/woman? In that case, the translation should've been: "Est-ce LA Hailey?" (feminine = la. Masculine = le)"Ops, when I translated the sentence I didn't think about that. Hailey sounded like Harley to me and I had a motorcycle in mind. /blush
So number two would need to be different whether it's a woman, a man, or an object and depending on the reason the person would ask such a question. Again, knowing the context would help.
I agree with Sharon. Readers should be able to figure out 'Pierre' is speaking French to certain people. From what I can see, you'll be using a few expressions to emphasize it. Maybe Pierre speaks in his native language when under stress, or to impress someone. Six sentences/expressions in a whole book should be fine. Just be careful not to go overboard with it.
I hope everyone believes me when I say, you came and I LISTENED! All of you have been a tremendous help in straightening out the mistakes I almost made.Zee read my paragraphs in their full context, which I didn't think to do here, and was able to help me get it right. All of you mostly translated it the same.
Thank you V.W. for the website.
And thank you, Sharon and G.G.--points taken!
I'm learning to speak French (and from what you've taught me, it's going to take years to master!) and a few of my works involve the language. So, I hope I can bother one of you native speakers in the future:)
Thanks again, Everyone--Bye!
Any time, Groovy. It'll never be a bother. ;)
Oh, and I forgot to add that I hope to return the favor one day, but for now all I can offer is a free copy of the book the translations will be in:COLORS IN THE DARK, a romantic suspense, will debut Aug.21st and if any one of you would be interested in a free copy, you can contact me at atreyhu@att.net.
The synopsis (blurb) is on my website if you want to know what it's about:
http://www.groovylee.com
Feel free to bug us anytime! :) We're here to help!
I have a new book coming out in a couple of weeks and I need help with a few of the French translations. Could you please direct me to a site that's reliable with their translations? The ones I've tried seem to constantly change in meaning.
Thank you!