Suggested additions and changes ?

Question

1. "In any case" - « en tout cas » is red-lined but should be accepted

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/anglais-francais/case/568797

2. "I will soon be able to get by ..." - « bientôt » is red-lined, but is also correct here. It does not say "quickly/rapidly be able to get by...", - rapidement/vite are currently given as the preferred answers.

3. The previously, extensively discussed "heard that Isabelle IS going to try her luck ..." sentence needs to be changed. It should be, as has previously been noted, 'WAS going to try her luck'. This would then also fit with the lesson which only uses was/were examples to indicate the imparfait to be used here.

The English sentence in its current form is open to several interpretations - it is not French that is the issue here, it is the vagaries of English 'as it is spoke'.

J'allais + [infinitive] to express the near future (Le Futur Proche) in the imperfect in French

For the first 2 options above, the suggestions agree with my wife's spontaneous first responses, and for the third, she immediately used imparfait but put a question mark over the use of 'is going to...' rather than 'was going to ... ' in the English sentence.

Accepted Answer

Hi Maarten, 
Sorry about the delay in answering this one ...
1. 'En tout cas' is given as an alternative so it shouldn't be red-lined so please report on your correction board.
2. To soon be able to get by to me is correctly translated by  'se débrouiller vite seul'.  I suppose you could say -
  J 'espère bientôt pouvoir  me débrouiller tout seul
but that is not the first thing that would have come to my mind.
3. The use of the 'imparfait' in French is correct as it is reported speech, what I am not sure about is whether it should be the same in English, Laura should have proofread this so I am assuming it is correct.
Bonne Continuation!

Answer

3. If you think that the English sentence is ungrammatical ('as it is spoke') then you are the first native English speaker to do so. On the other hand, the fact that your French speaking wife feels that the English sentence is wrong, is perhaps more an indication that reported speech is not exactly the same in both languages. Ideally there would be a lesson on reported speech which would explore this. I've tried, and failed, to find a comparison between English and French anywhere on the Internet.

Answer

I didn't say that the English is ungrammatical - although the use of tense in English for this situation is not as correct, cut and dried in everyday speech as some would like to make out.

The English statement is ambiguous, the French is not.

Answer

How is it ambiguous? I would have thought it's less ambiguous, since the range of possibilities is reduced - we know that the speaker still believes that Isabelle is going to do this, and it's still in the future. If you use a past tense instead, both of those are uncertain.

Answer

Except it is then not future proche in the past, it is the future. The English can definitely refer to the future from the time of speaking (now) rather than the time at which he heard. There is no reported speech here either - I heard, is not the same as she said.

Read David’s comment and you might understand the ambiguity.

Answer

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree.