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2. I thought of your advice.
Je pensais à votre conseil.
3. Take care of that mistake.

Prenez garde à cette faute.

4. His property consists of three farms.
Son bien consiste en trois fermes.
5. Do not take example from him.
Ne prenez pas exemple sur lui.

On and Upon.

§ 34. Do not always translate On and Upon by Sur

$35.

EXAMPLES:

1. On these solemn occasions.

Dans ces occasions solennelles.

2. On this condition.

À cette condition.

3. He lives upon bread and milk.
Il vit de pain et de lait.

4. It depends upon your conduct.
Cela dépend de votre conduite.

5. He plays upon the flute.

Il joue de la flûte. 6. On your return.

A votre retour.

About, Out of, Till, Under.

1. I have no money about me.

Je n'ai pas d'argent sur moi.
2. The pupil is about his exercises.
L'élève est après ses exercices.

3. His friends were all about him.

Ses amis étaient tous autour de lui.
4. I was looking out of the window.
Je regardais par la fenêtre.

5. They drank out of the bottle.
Ils burent à la bouteille.

6. I will not come till Monday.
Je ne viendrai pas avant lundi.

7. Under such circumstances.

Dans de pareilles circonstances.

1ST OBSERVATION.

§ 36. There are other cases where the English preposition is not to be translated at all.

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§ 37. Also, on the contrary, there are cases in which a preposition must be employed in French, though there is none in English.

EXAMPLES:

1. They enjoy all the comforts of this life.

Ils jouissent de tous les plaisirs de la vie.

2. We were approaching the cottage.

Nous nous approchions de la chaumière.

3. He does not remember you.

Il ne se souvient pas de vous.

4. He forgave his son.

Il a pardonné à son fils.

5. Obey your parents.

Obéissez à vos parents.

6. She pleased my mother.

Elle plut à ma mère.

7. Louis XIV, survived his grandson.

Louis XIV. survécut à son petit-fils.

8. We must repent our errors.

Nous devons nous repentir de nos fautes. 9. Henry VII. succeeded Richard III. Henry VII. succéda à Richard III.

10. T. Moore opposed the king.

T. Morus résista au roi.

11. I asked my sister what it was.

Je demandai à ma sœur ce que c'était.

12. She entered a cottage.

Elle entra dans une chaumière.

CONJUNCTIONS.

§ 38. WHEN is not translated by lorsque, if preceded by a noun expressing time to which it relates. It would be a great mistake to translate the following phrase, I was not at home THE DAY WHEN he arrived, Je n'étais pas à la maison LE JOUR LORSQU'il arriva. It must be rendered, Je n'étais pas à la maison LE JOUR QU'il arriva. § 39. After the verb attendre, TILL must not be translated by jusqu'à ce que. Que alone is to be used.

EXAMPLE:

Wait TILL I have finished.
Attendez QUE j'aie fini.

In a negative sentence, do not employ the conjunctive expression, jusqu'à ce que; but make use of the prepositive form avant de. Example: Never sign your name to a paper TILL you have read the contents of it. Ne signez jamais un papier AVANT D'en avoir lu le contenu. It would not be French here to say, Jusqu'à ce que vous en ayez lu le contenu.

§ 40. Observe that the conjunctions, quand, lorsque, aussitôt que, and dès que, require the verb which follows to be in the future when the principal verb of the sentence is itself in the future or the imperative.

EXAMPLES:

I will pay you when you LIKE.

Je vous payerai quand vous VOUDREZ.

As soon as you HAVE DONE, come to me.

Aussitôt que vous AUREZ FINI, venez me trouver.

§ 41. In English, a conjunction may have several verbs depending on it. Examples: As that affair is now public, and you have resolved to speak, I will be a witness to you. SINCE he wishes to come, and his father gives him leave, I shall be glad to receive him. In French, whatever may be the first conjunction, the verbs that follow must always be preceded by que. Examples: COMME cette affaire est maintenant publique, et QUE vous avez resolu de parler, je vous servirai de témoin. Puisqu'il desire venir, et QUE son père lui en donne la permission, je serai heureux de le recevoir.

§ 42. The conjunction THOUGH has generally as a correspondent

the word YET. Example: THOUGH all men are in arms against truth, YET this does not prevent its triumphing. In French it would be a mistake, in that case, to translate yet, as it is too often rendered, by cependant. You must suppress it and say, QUOIQUE tous les hommes soient armés contre la vérité, cela ne l'empêche pas de triompher.

ADVERBS.

§ 43. NEARLY and ALMOST must not be translated indifferently by PRESQUE or PRÈS DE.

PRESQUE is an adverb which modifies an adjective, a participle, or another adverb. Examples: Elle était PRESQUE FOLLE, She was nearly mad.-La maison est PRESQUE rebâtie, The house is almost rebuilt.—Ils vivaient PRESQUE somptueusement, They lived almost sumptuously.

PRÈS DE is an adverb of quantity which is only found before a number. Examples: Il a PRÈS DE quinze ans, He is nearly fifteen. J'ai reçu PRÈS DE cent livres, I received nearly one hundred pounds.

It would be wrong to say, Il a PRESQUE quinze ans; J'ai reçu PRESQUE cent livres.

§ 44. The adverb Now is frequently found in a sentence the verbs of which are in the past tense. Example: This reply did not lessen the monarch's surprise, for he NOW began to suspect his preceptor of mental derangement. In French, MAINTENANT is only used with the present tense; it would be impossible to say, MAINTENANT il commençait. In this case we must make use of ALORS, and translate thus: Cette réponse ne diminua pas la surprise du monarque, car ALORS il commençait à soupçonner son précepteur d'avoir l'esprit dérangé.

V.

The translator must not only conform to the requirements of the syntax, but he must also carefully observe two laws which are paramount in French; I mean Clearness and Euphony.

OF CLEARNESS.

§ 45. "What is not clear is not French," said Voltaire, and he was right; for clearness is the distinctive quality of the French language. The translator whose style remains obscure or equivocal commits an egregious mistake. In order to prevent it, he must above all things take the utmost care to make the mutual relation of words easy to grasp. This he will accomplish without much difficulty by avoiding long sentences, and by making the pronouns represent, without ambiguity, the nouns to which they relate.

§ 46. The relative pronoun WHICH permits constructions in English that would be impossible in French, because the pronouns qui and que refer equally to persons and things, and are at the same time of both genders and both numbers.

If, for example, we translate the following phrase, preserving the order of the construction, Expect the same filial duty from your children WHICH you paid to your parents, we should have, Attendez le même respect de vos enfants QUE vous aurez eu pour vos parents; which would be obscure, as que may refer as well to enfants as to respect. We must therefore change the order of the phrase, so as to place immediately before the pronoun que the noun which it represents. We should say then :

Attendez de vos enfants le même RESPECT QUE vous aurez eu pour vos parents.

§ 47. Sometimes the antecedent of the relative pronoun is followed by words which cannot be displaced. Example: Il est une autorité bien plus puissante que CELLE des hommes, DONT la voix commande jusqu'au fond de nos cœurs. Dont, which has celle for its antecedent, appears thus to relate rather to hommes than to autorité. As, in this case, the words des hommes cannot be displaced, we must repeat the antecedent substantive itself, and say, Il est une autorité bien plus puissante que celle des hommes, AUTORITÉ DONT la voix commande jusqu'au fond de nos cœurs.

§ 48. Personal pronouns also may render the phrase very obscure if they are not placed in such a manner as to recall

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