Questions tagged [french]
The french tag has no usage guidance.
17
questions
2
votes
3answers
108 views
In German, how to say: “when you just saw an awe-inspiring example to follow, which made you want to be just like that person”?
We were having a conversation in French about a certain businessman who visited our hospital, and I said jokingly:
Je viens de le croiser dans le couloir et il a tout du homme d’affaires. Un jour, ...
4
votes
7answers
2k views
How to emphasise the insignificance of someone/thing – besides using “klein”
We were having a conversation in French about asteroids, and I said:
Je ne suis peut-être pas expert en astronomie, mais... Qu’est-ce qu’un petit humain de rien du tout peut contre quelque chose d’...
3
votes
4answers
273 views
How is the idea of “two people having a heated argument” idiomatically expressed in German?
I was having a conversation with my friend in another language, and I was wondering how in German I'd express the idea of "two people having a heated argument where one of them throws a tantrum and, ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Do “sich etw. in den Kopf setzen” and “etw. im Kopf haben” always have a positive/negative connotation respectively?
In conversation with my friend, I said:
Er mag zwar ein richtiger kleiner Unruhestifter gewesen sein und hatte vielleicht immer nur Unfug im Kopf, aber wenn er sich etwas in den Kopf gesetzt hatte, ...
3
votes
3answers
127 views
German equivalents of the hyperbolic “je ne sais combien/quel/etc” in French
We were having a conversation in French, and I was wondering how I'd express the same idea in German:
En arrivant à l'aéroport, on est passés par je ne sais combien de contrôles de sécurité tous ...
3
votes
1answer
78 views
German equivalents of the French expression “pour un oui ou pour un non”
Tu ramènes toujours tes complexes ethniques, pour un oui ou pour un non, dans toutes les discussions, même les plus anodines.
{literally}: You always dredge up some complex about your ethnic origin, ...
3
votes
1answer
162 views
How is the idea of “girlfriend material” naturally expressed in German?
Elle n'est pas de l'étoffe dont on fait les copines...
{literally}: She's not of the material from which we make girlfriends.
То express the idea of "she's not (X)girlfriend material", "she's not ...
4
votes
4answers
141 views
German equivalents of “À peine le temps de dire ouf” in French
À peine le temps de dire ouf qu’il est tombé comme une brique sur le lit...
Literally: (He must have been dead tired.) No sooner / Hardly had he said phew than he fell onto the bed like a bag of ...
5
votes
1answer
117 views
How do German speakers idiomatically express the idea of “Ce n’est pas donné à tout le monde de …” in French?
Tu as vraiment de la chance, XXX, c’est pas donné à tout le monde d’être amie avec un joueur de tennis mondialement connu.
We were having a conversation in French, and I was wondering how I'd express ...
6
votes
3answers
287 views
German equivalent of the French expression “Mais de là à …”
In conversation, you can say, for instance:
Elle était du genre à se jeter sur les horoscopes. Mais de là à se faire refaire les lignes de la main...
"She was always one to blindly believe in ...
8
votes
3answers
179 views
German equivalent of the French expression “n'avoir rien à envier à personne”
Pourtant, en matière d'écart de langage, elle n'a rien à envier à personne.
= Someone made an inappropriate remark, but she’s had more than her fair share of slip-of-the-tongue moments herself. So ...
4
votes
3answers
217 views
Pseudo-French words in German
In her review of Vanderperren, Dictionnaire des faux amis/Wörterbuch der faux amis. Allemand-francais/Deutch-Französisch, Paris, 1994, published in Romanistiches Jahrbuch, vol. 46, issue 1, the ...
2
votes
1answer
165 views
German-French false friends dictionary
I would like to know if there is a German-French dictionary of false friends, i.e. words that exist in both languages and sound similarly but have different meanings, for example état in French means "...
2
votes
3answers
822 views
How would you translate Enchanté?
The French word Enchanté means "Nice to meet you" or "Delighted". What is the most idiomatic way to say this in German? Google Translate gives verzauberte but I doubt this is idiomatic.
13
votes
2answers
2k views
What is the name of this type of chair that can be found on beaches?
I'm looking for a German translation of this type of chair, that can be found on the northern French beaches. We call them "Chaises à capuchon", where chaise is "chair" and capuchon would be "hood" or ...
1
vote
1answer
86 views
Going from “wäre” and “sei” in indirect reporting to the actual (direct) discourse
The question is on these two German renditions of a passage from Camus’s L’Étranger (English: The Stranger or The Outsider, German: Der Fremde).
To set the context, Meursault, the first person ...
6
votes
1answer
282 views
How to translate “Relever une prescription” from French to German?
How do you say in German when a nurse becomes aware of a medical prescription and prepares everything according to what the doctor asks?
In French we say "relever une prescription". The action itself ...
