Can I ask about the following sentence: "Now, remember that at the time" —> Maintenant, rappelez-vous qu'à l'époque"
In the English sentence "Now," functions as a filler, rather than meaning literally "at the moment" - you could as easily say "Well," or "So," without changing the sense of the narrative. I was expecting "donc" or "alors" and wonder if it’s common to use "maintenant’ like this?
It may not high French, and it may not be the most common filler, but it is certainly used by native French speakers. It functions both as a filler and also to draw the attention of listeners to a relevant point about to be made, as 'now' can be used in English.
Hi Anne,
After discussion within the team, we have decided to accept 'alors' which, as a filler word, is very close in meaning to 'maintenant'.
Thank you for pointing this out!
That doesn't sound like good, proper French . A common filler word would be alors in that case.
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