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1 French departments
The names of French departments usually have the definite article, except when used after the preposition en.In, to and from somewhereto live in the Loiret= vivre dans le Loiretto go to the Loiret= aller dans le Loiretto live in the Landes= vivre dans les Landesto go to the Landes= aller dans les Landesto live in the Loir-et-Cher= vivre dans le Loir-et-Cherto go to the Loir-et-Cher= aller dans le Loir-et-Cherto live in Savoy= vivre en Savoieto go to Savoy= aller en Savoieto live in Seine-et-Marne= vivre en Seine-et-Marneto go to Seine-et-Marne= aller en Seine-et-Marneto come from the Loiret= venir du Loiretto come from the Landes= venir des Landesto come from the Loir-et-Cher= venir du Loir-et-CherFor from, use de without the definite article for feminine names of departments:to come from Savoy= venir de Savoieto come from Seine-et-Marne= venir de Seine-et-MarneUses with nounsUse de with the definite article in most cases:a Cantal accent= un accent du Cantalthe Var area= la région du Varthe Creuse countryside= les paysages de la CreuseLoiret people= les gens du LoiretYonne representatives= les représentants de l’YonneLandes restaurants= les restaurants des Landesthe Calvados team= l’équipe du CalvadosArdennes towns= les villes des ArdennesSeine-et-Marne hotels= les hôtels de Seine-et-MarneSome cases are undecided:Savoy roads= les routes de Savoie or de la Savoie -
2 Usage note : a
The determiner or indefinite article a or an is translated by un + masculine noun and by une + feminine noun:a tree= un arbrea chair= une chaiseThere are, however, some cases where the article is not translated:with professions and trades:her mother is a teacher= sa mère est professeurwith other nouns used in apposition:he’s a widower= il est veufwith what a:what a pretty house!= quelle jolie maison!For translations of a few, a little, a lot, a great many see the entries few, little, lot, many.When expressing prices in relation to weight, the definite article le/la is used in French:ten euros a kilo= dix euros le kiloIn other expressions where a/an means per, the French translation is usually par:twice a day= deux fois par jourFor translations of all other expressions using the indefinite article such as to make a noise, to make a fortune, at a blow etc. consult the appropriate noun entry (noise, fortune, blow etc.). -
3 British regions and counties
The names of British regions and counties usually have the definite article in French, except when used with the preposition en.In, to and from somewhereMost counties and regions are masculine ; with these, in and to are translated by dans le, and from by du:to live in Sussex= vivre dans le Sussexto go to Sussex= aller dans le Sussexto come from Sussex= venir du SussexNote however:Cornwall= la Cornouaillesto live in Cornwall= vivre en Cornouaillesto go to Cornwall= aller en Cornouaillesto come from Cornwall= venir de la CornouaillesUses with nounsThere are rarely French equivalents for English forms like Cornishmen, and it is always safe to use de with the definite article:Cornishmen= les habitants mpl de la CornouaillesLancastrians= les habitants du LancashireIn other cases, du is often possible:a Somerset accent= un accent du Somersetthe Yorkshire countryside= les paysages du Yorkshirebut it is usually safe to use du comté de:the towns of Fife= les villes du comté de Fifethe rivers of Merioneth= les rivières du comté de Merionethor de la région de:Grampian cattle= le bétail de la région des GrampiansBig English-French dictionary > British regions and counties
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4 French provinces and regions
Both traditional pre-Revolution regions and modern administrative regions usually take the definite article as in l’Alsace, la Champagne etc.:I like Alsace= j’aime l’AlsaceChampagne is beautiful= la Champagne est belleFor names which have a compound form, such as Midi-Pyrénées or Rhône-Alpes, it is safer to include the words la région:do you know Midi-Pyrénées?= connaissez-vous la région Midi-Pyrénées?In, to and from somewhereThere are certain general principles regarding names of French provinces and regions. However, usage is sometimes uncertain ; doubtful items should be checked in the dictionary.For in and to, with feminine names and with masculine ones beginning with a vowel, use en without the definite article:to live in Burgundy= vivre en Bourgogneto go to Burgundy= aller en Bourgogneto live in Anjou= vivre en Anjouto go to Anjou= aller en AnjouFor in and to with masculine names beginning with a consonant, use dans le:to live in the Berry= vivre dans le Berryto go to the Berry= aller dans le BerryFor from with feminine names and with masculine ones beginning with a vowel, use de without the definite article:to come from Burgundy= venir de Bourgogneto come from Anjou= venir d’AnjouFor from with masculine names beginning with a consonant, use du:to come from the Berry= venir du BerryRegional adjectivesRelated adjectives and nouns exist for most of the names of provinces and regions. Here is a list of the commonest:
an Alsace accent= un accent alsacienAlsace costume= le costume alsacienthe Alsace countryside= les paysages alsaciensAlsace traditions= les traditions alsaciennesAlsace villages= les villages alsaciensThese words can also be used as nouns, meaning a person from X ; in this case they are written with a capital letter:a person from Alsace= un Alsacienan Alsace woman= une Alsaciennethe people of Alsace= les Alsaciens mplBig English-French dictionary > French provinces and regions
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5 US states
In some cases, there is a French form of the name, but not always (if in doubt, check in the dictionary). Each state has a gender in French and is used with the definite article, except after the preposition en, e.g.:Arkansas= l’Arkansas mCalifornia= la CalifornieTexas= le TexasSo:Arkansas is beautiful= l’Arkansas est beauI like California= j’aime la Californiedo you know Texas?= connaissez-vous le Texas?In, to and from somewherein Alaska= en Alaskato Alaska= en Alaskain California= en Californieto California= en Californiein Texas= au Texasto Texas= au TexasFor from use de for feminine states and for masculine ones beginning with a vowel, e.g.:from California= de Californiefrom Alaska= d’AlaskaFor from use du for masculine states beginning with a consonant, e.g.:from Texas= du TexasComing from somewhere: Uses with another nounThere are a few words e.g. californien, new-yorkais, texan used as adjectives and as nouns (with a capital letter) referring to the inhabitants. In other cases it is usually safe to use de for feminine states, and to use de l’ or du for masculine states, e.g.:the Florida countryside= les paysages de FlorideIllinois representatives= les représentants de l’Illinoisbuta Louisiana accent= l’accent de la LouisianeNew-Mexico roads= les routes du Nouveau-Mexique -
6 Countries and continents
Most countries and all continents are used with the definite article in French:France is a beautiful country= la France est un beau paysI like Canada= j’aime le Canadato visit the United States= visiter les États-Unisto know Iran= connaître l’IranA very few countries do not:to visit Israel= visiter IsraëlWhen in doubt, check in the dictionary.All the continent names are feminine in French. Most names of countries are feminine e.g. la France, but some are masculine e.g. le Canada.Most names of countries are singular in French, but some are plural (usually, but not always, those that are plural in English) e.g. les États-Unis mpl (the United States), and les Philippines fpl (the Philippines). Note, however, the plural verb sont:the Philippines is a lovely country= les Philippines sont un beau paysIn, to and from somewhereWith continent names, feminine singular names of countries and masculine singular names of countries beginning with a vowel, for in and to, use en, and for from, use de:to live in Europe= vivre en Europeto go to Europe= aller en Europeto come from Europe= venir d’Europeto live in France= vivre en Franceto go to France= aller en Franceto come from France= venir de Franceto live in Afghanistan= vivre en Afghanistanto go to Afghanistan= aller en Afghanistanto come from Afghanistan= venir d’AfghanistanNote that names of countries and continents that include North, South, East, or West work in the same way:to live in North Korea= vivre en Corée du Nordto go to North Korea= aller en Corée du Nordto come from North Korea= venir de Corée du NordWith masculine countries beginning with a consonant, and with plurals, use au or aux for in and to, and du or des for from:to live in Canada= vivre au Canadato go to Canada= aller au Canadato come from Canada= venir du Canadato live in the United States= vivre aux États-Unisto go to the United States= aller aux États-Unisto come from the United States= venir des États-Unisto live in the Philippines= vivre aux Philippinesto go to the Philippines= aller aux Philippinesto come from the Philippines= venir des PhilippinesAdjective uses: français or de France or de la France?For French, the translation français is usually safe ; here are some typical examples:the French army= l’armée françaisethe French coast= la côte françaiseFrench cooking= la cuisine françaiseFrench currency= la monnaie françaisethe French Customs= la douane françaisethe French government= le gouvernement françaisthe French language= la langue françaiseFrench literature= la littérature françaiseFrench money= l’argent françaisthe French nation= le peuple françaisFrench politics= la politique françaisea French town= une ville françaiseFrench traditions= les traditions françaisesSome nouns, however, occur more commonly with de France (usually, but not always, their English equivalents can have of France as well as French):the Ambassador of France or the French Ambassador= l’ambassadeur de Francethe French Embassy= l’ambassade de Francethe history of France or French history= l’histoire de Francethe King of France or the French king= le roi de Francethe rivers of France= les fleuves et rivières de Francethe French team= l’équipe de Francebut note:the capital of France or the French capital= la capitale de la FranceNote that many geopolitical adjectives like French can also refer to nationality, e.g. a French tourist ⇒ Nationalities, or to the language, e.g. a French word ⇒ Languages. -
7 a
a [eɪ, ə]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Before vowel or silent h: an.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► In French, the indefinite article reflects the gender of the noun: for masculine nouns, use un; for feminine nouns, use une.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The definite article le, la, les is sometimes used in French to translate the indefinite article.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note how the article is not used at all in the following examples referring to someone's profession or marital status.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• as a teacher, I believe that... en tant qu'enseignant, je crois que...━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note the different ways of translating a when it means per.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• $4 a person 4 dollars par personne• 3 euros a kilo 3 € le kilo* * *IA [eɪ] noun1) ( letter) a, A m2) A Music la m3) A ( place)4) a ( in house number) a; cf bis5) A GB ( road)II [ə, eɪ](avant voyelle ou ‘h’ muet an [æn, ən]) determiner un/une -
8 Colours
Not all English colour terms have a single exact equivalent in French: for instance, in some circumstances brown is marron, in others brun. If in doubt, look the word up in the dictionary.Colour termswhat colour is it?= c’est de quelle couleur? or (more formally) de quelle couleur est-il?it’s green= il est vert or elle est verteto paint sth green= peindre qch en vertto dye sth green= teindre qch en vertto wear green= porter du vertdressed in green= habillé de vertColour nouns are all masculine in French:I like green= j’aime le vertI prefer blue= je préfère le bleured suits her= le rouge lui va bienit’s a pretty yellow!= c’est un joli jaune!have you got it in white?= est-ce que vous l’avez en blanc?a pretty shade of blue= un joli ton de bleuit was a dreadful green= c’était un vert affreuxa range of greens= une gamme de vertsMost adjectives of colour agree with the noun they modify:a blue coat= un manteau bleua blue dress= une robe bleueblue clothes= des vêtements bleusSome that don’t agree are explained below.Words that are not true adjectivesSome words that translate English adjectives are really nouns in French, and so don’t show agreement:a brown shoe= une chaussure marronorange tablecloths= des nappes fpl orangehazel eyes= des yeux mpl noisetteOther French words like this include: cerise ( cherry-red), chocolat ( chocolate-brown) and émeraude ( emerald-green).Shades of colourExpressions like pale blue, dark green or light yellow are also invariable in French and show no agreement:a pale blue shirt= une chemise bleu pâledark green blankets= des couvertures fpl vert foncéa light yellow tie= une cravate jaune clairbright yellow socks= des chaussettes fpl jaune vifFrench can also use the colour nouns here: instead of une chemise bleu pâle you could say une chemise d’un bleu pâle ; and similarly des couvertures d’un vert foncé (etc). The nouns in French are normally used to translate English adjectives of this type ending in -er and -est:a darker blue= un bleu plus foncéthe dress was a darker blue= la robe était d’un bleu plus foncéSimilarly:a lighter blue= un bleu plus clair (etc.)In the following examples, blue stands for most basic colour terms:pale blue= bleu pâlelight blue= bleu clairbright blue= bleu vifdark blue= bleu foncédeep blue= bleu profondstrong blue= bleu soutenuOther types of compound in French are also invariable, and do not agree with their nouns:a navy-blue jacket= une veste bleu marineThese compounds include: bleu ciel ( sky-blue), vert pomme ( apple-green), bleu nuit ( midnight-blue), rouge sang ( blood-red) etc. However, all English compounds do not translate directly into French. If in doubt, check in the dictionary.French compounds consisting of two colour terms linked with a hyphen are also invariable:a blue-black material= une étoffe bleu-noira greenish-blue cup= une tasse bleu-verta greeny-yellow dress= une robe vert-jauneEnglish uses the ending -ish, or sometimes -y, to show that something is approximately a certain colour, e.g. a reddish hat or a greenish paint. The French equivalent is -âtre:blue-ish= bleuâtregreenish or greeny= verdâtregreyish= grisâtrereddish= rougeâtreyellowish or yellowy= jaunâtreetc.Other similar French words are rosâtre, noirâtre and blanchâtre. Note however that these words are often rather negative in French. It is better not to use them if you want to be complimentary about something. Use instead tirant sur le rouge/jaune etc.To describe a special colour, English can add -coloured to a noun such as raspberry (framboise) or flesh (chair). Note how this is said in French, where the two-word compound with couleur is invariable, and, unlike English, never has a hyphen:a chocolate-coloured skirt= une jupe couleur chocolatraspberry-coloured fabric= du tissu couleur framboiseflesh-coloured tights= un collant couleur chairColour verbsEnglish makes some colour verbs by adding -en (e.g. blacken). Similarly French has some verbs in -ir made from colour terms:to blacken= noircirto redden= rougirto whiten= blanchirThe other French colour terms that behave like this are: bleu (bleuir), jaune (jaunir), rose (rosir) and vert (verdir). It is always safe, however, to use devenir, thus:to turn purple= devenir violetDescribing peopleNote the use of the definite article in the following:to have black hair= avoir les cheveux noirsto have blue eyes= avoir les yeux bleusNote the use of à in the following:a girl with blue eyes= une jeune fille aux yeux bleusthe man with black hair= l’homme aux cheveux noirsNot all colours have direct equivalents in French. The following words are used for describing the colour of someone’s hair (note that les cheveux is plural in French):fair= blonddark= brunblonde or blond= blondbrown= châtain invred= rouxblack= noirgrey= griswhite= blancCheck other terms such as yellow, ginger, auburn, mousey etc. in the dictionary.Note these nouns in French:a fair-haired man= un blonda fair-haired woman= une blondea dark-haired man= un bruna dark-haired woman= une bruneThe following words are useful for describing the colour of someone’s eyes:blue= bleulight blue= bleu clair invlight brown= marron clair invbrown= marron invhazel= noisette invgreen= vertgrey= grisgreyish-green= gris-vert invdark= noir -
9 Forms of address
Only those forms of address in frequent use are included here ; titles of members of the nobility or of church dignitaries are not covered ; for the use of military ranks as titles ⇒ Military ranks and titles.Speaking to someoneWhere English puts the surname after the title, French normally uses the title alone (note that when speaking to someone, French does not use a capital letter for monsieur, madame and mademoiselle, unlike English Mr etc., nor for titles such as docteur).good morning, Mr Johnson= bonjour, monsieurgood evening, Mrs Jones= bonsoir, madamegoodbye, Miss Smith= au revoir, mademoiselleThe French monsieur and madame tend to be used more often than the English Mr X or Mrs Y. Also, in English, people often say simply Good morning or Excuse me ; in the equivalent situation in French, they might say Bonjour, monsieur or Pardon, madame. However, the French are slower than the British, and much slower than the Americans, to use someone’s first name, so hi there, Peter! to a colleague may well be simply bonjour!, or bonjour, monsieur ; bonjour, cher ami ; bonjour, mon vieux etc., depending on the degree of familiarity that exists.In both languages, other titles are also used, e.g.:hallo, Dr. Brown or hallo, Doctor= bonjour, docteurIn some cases where titles are not used in English, they are used in French, e.g. bonjour, Monsieur le directeur or bonjour, Madame la directrice to a head teacher, or bonjour, maître to a lawyer of either sex. Other titles, such as professeur ( in the sense of professor), are used much less than their English equivalents in direct address. Where in English one might say Good morning, Professor, in French one would probably say Bonjour, monsieur or Bonjour, madame.Titles of important positions are used in direct forms of address, preceded by Monsieur le or Madame le or Madame la, as in:yes, Chair= oui, Monsieur le président or (to a woman) oui, Madame la présidenteyes, Minister= oui, Monsieur le ministre or (to a woman) oui, Madame le ministreNote the use of Madame le when the noun in question, like ministre here, or professeur and other titles, has no feminine form, or no acceptable feminine. A woman Member of Parliament is addressed as Madame le député, a woman Senator Madame le sénateur, a woman judge Madame le juge and a woman mayor Madame le maire. Women often prefer the masculine word even when a feminine form does exist, as in Madame l’ambassadeur to a woman ambassador, Madame l’ambassadrice being reserved for the wife of an ambassador.Speaking about someoneMr Smith is here= monsieur Smith est làMrs Jones phoned= madame Jones a téléphonéMiss Black has arrived= mademoiselle Black est arrivéeMs Brown has left= madame Brown or (as appropriate) mademoiselle Brown est partie(French has no equivalent of Ms.)When the title accompanies someone’s name, the definite article must be used in French:Dr Blake has arrived= le docteur Blake est arrivéProfessor Jones spoke= le professeur Jones a parléThis is true of all titles:Prince Charles= le prince CharlesPrincess Marie= la princesse MarieNote that with royal etc. titles, only 1er is spoken as an ordinal number (premier) in French ; unlike English, all the others are spoken as cardinal numbers (deux, trois, and so on).King Richard I= le roi Richard 1er ( say Richard premier)Queen Elizabeth II= la reine Elizabeth II ( say Elizabeth deux)Pope John XXIII= le pape Jean XXIII ( say Jean vingt-trois) -
10 Numbers
0 zéro*1 un†2 deux3 trois4 quatre5 cinq6 six7 sept8 huit9 neuf10 dix11 onze12 douze13 treize14 quatorze15 quinze16 seize17 dix-sept18 dix-huit19 dix-neuf20 vingt21 vingt et un22 vingt-deux30 trente31 trente et un32 trente-deux40 quarante50 cinquante60 soixante70 soixante-dixseptante (in Belgium, Canada, Switzerland etc.)71 soixante et onzeseptante et un ( etc)72 soixante-douze73 soixante-treize74 soixante-quatorze75 soixante-quinze76 soixante-seize77 soixante-dix-sept78 soixante-dix-nuit79 soixante-dix-neuf80 quatre-vingts‡81 quatre-vingt-un§82 quatre-vingt-deux90 quatre-vingt-dix ; nonante (in Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, etc)91 quatre-vingt-onze ; nonante et un92 quatre-vingt-douze ; nonante-deux ( etc.)99 quatre-vingt-dix-neuf100 cent101 cent un†102 cent deux110 cent dix111 cent onze112 cent douze187 cent quatre-vingt-sept200 deux cents250 deux cent|| cinquante300 trois cents1000 || mille1001 mille un†1002 mille deux1020 mille vingt1200 mille** deux cents2000 deux mille††10000 dix mille10200 dix mille deux cents100000 cent mille102000 cent deux mille1000000 un million‡‡1264932 un million deux cent soixante-quatre mille neuf cent trente-deux1000000000 un milliard‡‡1000000000000 un billion‡‡* In English 0 may be called nought, zero or even nothing ; French is always zéro ; a nought = un zéro.† Note that one is une in French when it agrees with a feminine noun, so un crayon but une table, une des tables, vingt et une tables, combien de tables? - il y en a une seule etc.‡ Also huitante in Switzerland. Note that when 80 is used as a page number it has no s, e.g. page eighty = page quatre-vingt.§ Note that vingt has no s when it is in the middle of a number. The only exception to this rule is when quatre-vingts is followed by millions, milliards or billions, e.g. quatre-vingts millions, quatre-vingts billions etc.Note that cent does not take an s when it is in the middle of a number. The only exception to this rule is when it is followed by millions, milliards or billions, e.g. trois cents millions, six cents billions etc. It has a normal plural when it modifies other nouns, e.g. 200 inhabitants = deux cents habitants.|| Note that figures in French are set out differently ; where English would have a comma, French has simply a space. It is also possible in French to use a full stop (period) here, e.g. 1.000. French, like English, writes dates without any separation between thousands and hundreds, e.g. in 1995 = en 1995.** When such a figure refers to a date, the spelling mil is preferred to mille, i.e. en 1200 = en mil deux cents. Note however the exceptions: when the year is a round number of thousands, the spelling is always mille, so en l’an mille, en l’an deux mille etc.†† Mille is invariable ; it never takes an s.‡‡ Note that the French words million, milliard and billion are nouns, and when written out in full they take de before another noun, e.g. a million inhabitants is un million d’habitants, a billion francs is un billion de francs. However, when written in figures, 1,000,000 inhabitants is 1000000 habitants, but is still spoken as un million d’habitants. When million etc. is part of a complex number, de is not used before the nouns, e.g. 6,000,210 people = six millions deux cent dix personnes.Use of enNote the use of en in the following examples:there are six= il y en a sixI’ve got a hundred= j’en ai centEn must be used when the thing you are talking about is not expressed (the French says literally there of them are six, I of them have a hundred etc.). However, en is not needed when the object is specified:there are six apples= il y a six pommesApproximate numbersWhen you want to say about…, remember the French ending -aine:about ten= une dizaineabout ten books= une dizaine de livresabout fifteen= une quinzaineabout fifteen people= une quinzaine de personnesabout twenty= une vingtaineabout twenty hours= une vingtaine d’heuresSimilarly une trentaine, une quarantaine, une cinquantaine, une soixantaine and une centaine ( and une douzaine means a dozen). For other numbers, use environ (about):about thirty-five= environ trente-cinqabout thirty-five francs= environ trente-cinq francsabout four thousand= environ quatre milleabout four thousand pages= environ quatre mille pagesEnviron can be used with any number: environ dix, environ quinze etc. are as good as une dizaine, une quinzaine etc.Note the use of centaines and milliers to express approximate quantities:hundreds of books= des centaines de livresI’ve got hundreds= j’en ai des centaineshundreds and hundreds of fish= des centaines et des centaines de poissonsI’ve got thousands= j’en ai des milliersthousands of books= des milliers de livresthousands and thousands= des milliers et des milliersmillions and millions= des millions et des millionsPhrasesnumbers up to ten= les nombres jusqu’à dixto count up to ten= compter jusqu’à dixalmost ten= presque dixless than ten= moins de dixmore than ten= plus de dixall ten of them= tous les dixall ten boys= les dix garçonsNote the French word order:my last ten pounds= mes dix dernières livresthe next twelve weeks= les douze prochaines semainesthe other two= les deux autresthe last four= les quatre derniersCalculations in French
Note that French uses a comma where English has a decimal point.0,25 zéro virgule vingt-cinq0,05 zéro virgule zéro cinq0,75 zéro virgule soixante-quinze3,45 trois virgule quarante-cinq8,195 huit virgule cent quatre-vingt-quinze9,1567 neuf virgule quinze cent soixante-septor neuf virgule mille cinq cent soixante-sept9,3456 neuf virgule trois mille quatre cent cinquante-sixPercentages in French25% vingt-cinq pour cent50% cinquante pour cent100% cent pour cent200% deux cents pour cent365% troix cent soixante-cinq pour cent4,25% quatre virgule vingt-cinq pour centFractions in French
Ordinal numbers in French§1st 1er‡ premier ( feminine première)2nd 2e second or deuxième3rd 3e troisième4th 4e quatrième5th 5e cinquième6th 6e sixième7th 7e septième8th 8e huitième9th 9e neuvième10th 10e dixième11th 11e onzième12th 12e douzième13th 13e treizième14th 14e quatorzième15th 15e quinzième16th 16e seizième17th 17e dix-septième18th 18e dix-huitième19th 19e dix-neuvième20th 20e vingtième21st 21e vingt et unième22nd 22e vingt-deuxième23rd 23e vingt-troisième24th 24e vingt-quatrième25th 25e vingt-cinquième30th 30e trentième31st 31e trente et unième40th 40e quarantième50th 50e cinquantième60th 60e soixantième70th 70e soixante-dixième or septantième (in Belgium, Canada, Switzerland etc.)71st 71e soixante et onzième or septante et unième (etc.)72nd 72e soixante-douzième73rd 73e soixante-treizième74th 74e soixante-quatorzième75th 75e soixante-quinzième76th 76e soixante-seizième77th 77e soixante-dix-septième78th 78e soixante-dix-huitième79th 79e soixante-dix-neuvième80th 80e quatre-vingtième¶81st 81e quatre-vingt-unième90th 90e quatre-vingt-dixième or nonantième (in Belgium, Canada, Switzerland etc.)91st 91e quatre-vingt-onzième, or nonante et unième (etc.)99th 99e quatre-vingt-dix-neuvième100th 100e centième101st 101e cent et unième102nd 102e cent-deuxième196th 196e cent quatre-vingt-seizième200th 200e deux centième300th 300e trois centième400th 400e quatre centième1,000th 1000e millième2,000th 2000e deux millième1,000,000th 1000000e millionièmeLike English, French makes nouns by adding the definite article:the firstthe second= le second (or la seconde etc.)the first three= les trois premiers or les trois premièresNote the French word order in:the third richest country in the world= le troisième pays le plus riche du monde* Note that half, when not a fraction, is translated by the noun moitié or the adjective demi ; see the dictionary entry.† Note the use of les and d’entre when these fractions are used about a group of people or things: two-thirds of them = les deux tiers d’entre eux.‡ This is the masculine form ; the feminine is 1re and the plural 1ers (m) or 1res (f).§ All the ordinal numbers in French behave like ordinary adjectives and take normal plural endings where appropriate.¶ Also huitantième in Switzerland. -
11 Swiss cantons
All names of cantons are masculine, and the definite article is normally used:Ticino= le TessinValais= le ValaisGraubünden= les GrisonsSo:I like Ticino= j’aime le Tessinthe Valais is beautiful= le Valais est beaudo you know Graubünden?= connaissez-vous les Grisons?Many cantons have names which are also names of towns. If you are not sure of the name in French, le canton de X is usually safe, and in some cases this is the only form available, as, for instance, le canton de Vaud ( because le Vaud sounds like le veau = the calf). Similarly it is usual to say le canton de Lucerne, le canton de Berne, le canton de Fribourg to distinguish them from the towns bearing those names).In, to and from somewhereto live in the Valais= vivre dans le Valaisto go to the Valais= aller dans le Valaisto come from the Valais= venir du Valaisto live in Graubünden= vivre dans les Grisonsto go to Graubünden= aller dans les Grisonsto come from Graubünden= venir des Grisonsto live in the Vaud= vivre dans le canton de Vaudto go to the Vaud= aller dans le canton de Vaudto come from the Vaud= venir du canton de VaudUses with other nounsThere are a number of words used as adjectives and as nouns referring to the people of the canton, e.g.: bernois, valaisan, vaudois. When nouns, these start with a capital letter.However, it is always safe to make a phrase with du, de l’ or des:a Valais accent= un accent du Valaisthe Graubünden area= la région des Grisonsthe Vaud countryside= les paysages du canton de Vaud -
12 in
in [ɪn]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition2. adverb3. adjective4. plural noun5. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When in is an element in a phrasal verb, eg ask in, fill in, look up the verb. When it is part of a set combination, eg in danger, weak in, look up the other word.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in it/them ( = inside it, inside them) dedans• our bags were stolen, and our passports were in them on nous a volé nos sacs et nos passeports étaient dedansb. (people, animals, plants) chez► in + feminine countries, regions, islands en━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Feminine countries usually end in -e.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► en is also used with masculine countries beginning with a vowel or silent h.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in + masculine country au• in Japan/Kuwait au Japon/Koweït━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note also the following:━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in + plural country/group of islands aux━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━e. (month, year, season) en• in summer/autumn/winter en été/automne/hiver━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━f. ( = wearing) eng. (language, medium, material) en• in marble/velvet en marbre/veloursj. ( = while) en• in trying to save her he fell into the water himself en essayant de la sauver, il est tombé à l'eau2. adverba. ( = inside) à l'intérieur• she opened the door and they all rushed in elle a ouvert la porte et ils se sont tous précipités à l'intérieur━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━b. (at home, work)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• you're never in! tu n'es jamais chez toi !• is Paul in? est-ce que Paul est là ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► to be in may require a more specific translation.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in between + noun/pronoun entre• he positioned himself in between the two weakest players il s'est placé entre les deux joueurs les plus faibles• in between adventures, he finds time for... entre deux aventures, il trouve le temps de...► to be in for sth ( = be threatened with)• you don't know what you're in for! (inf) tu ne sais pas ce qui t'attend !• he's in for it! (inf) il va en prendre pour son grade ! (inf)► to be in on sth (inf) ( = know about)the new treatment is preferable in that... le nouveau traitement est préférable car...► to be well in with sb (inf) être dans les petits papiers de qn (inf)3. adjective• it's the in thing to... c'est très à la mode de...4. plural noun5. compounds• to have in-service training faire un stage d'initiation ► in-store adjective [detective] employé par le magasin* * *Note: in is often used after verbs in English ( join in, tuck in, result in, write in etc). For translations, consult the appropriate verb entry (join, tuck, result, write etc)If you have doubts about how to translate a phrase or expression beginning with in ( in a huff, in business, in trouble etc) you should consult the appropriate noun entry (huff, business, trouble etc)This dictionary contains usage notes on such topics as age, countries, dates, islands, months, towns and cities etc. Many of these use the preposition in. For the index to these notesFor examples of the above and particular functions and uses of in, see the entry below[ɪn] 1.in prison/town — en prison/ville
in the film/newspaper — dans le film/journal
I'm in here! — je suis là!; bath, bed
2) (inside, within) dansthere's something in it — il y a quelque chose dedans or à l'intérieur
3) ( expressing a subject or field) dansin insurance — dans les assurances; course, expert
4) (included, involved)to be in on the secret — (colloq) être dans le secret
I wasn't in on it — (colloq) je n'étais pas dans le coup (colloq)
5) ( in expressions of time)6) ( within the space of) en7) ( expressing the future) dans8) ( for) depuisit hasn't rained in weeks — il n'a pas plu depuis des semaines, ça fait des semaines qu'il n'a pas plu
9) (during, because of) dans10) ( with reflexive pronouns)how do you feel in yourself? — est-ce que tu as le moral?; itself
11) (present in, inherent in)12) (expressing colour, composition) en13) ( dressed in) en14) ( expressing manner or medium)‘no,’ he said in a whisper — ‘non,’ a-t-il chuchoté
in pencil/in ink — au crayon/à l'encre
15) ( as regards)rich/poor in minerals — riche/pauvre en minéraux
16) (by)17) ( in superlatives) de18) ( in measurements)19) ( in ratios)a gradient of 1 in 4 — une pente de 25%
20) ( in approximate amounts)in their hundreds ou thousands — par centaines or milliers
21) ( expressing age)2.in old age — avec l'âge, en vieillissant
in and out prepositional phrase3.to weave in and out of — se faufiler entre [traffic, tables]
in that conjunctional phrase dans la mesure où4.1) ( indoors)to ask ou invite somebody in — faire entrer quelqu'un
2) (at home, at work)to be in by midnight — être rentré avant minuit; keep, stay
3) (in prison, in hospital)4) ( arrived)5) Sport6) ( gathered)7) ( in supply)8) ( submitted)5.the homework has to be in tomorrow — le devoir doit être rendu demain; get, power, vote
(colloq) adjectiveto be in —
••to have an in with somebody — US avoir ses entrées chez quelqu'un
to have it in for somebody — (colloq) avoir quelqu'un dans le collimateur (colloq)
you're in for it — (colloq) tu vas avoir des ennuis
he's in for a shock/surprise — il va avoir un choc/être surpris
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13 to
to [tu:, tə]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition2. adverb3. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When to is the second element in a phrasal verb, eg apply to, set to, look up the verb. When to is part of a set combination, eg nice to, of help to, look up the adjective or noun.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━a. (direction, movement) à━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► to it ( = there) y• I liked the exhibition, I went to it twice j'ai aimé l'exposition, j'y suis allé deux foisb. ( = towards) versc. (home, workplace) chez► to + feminine country/area en• to England/France en Angleterre/France• to Brittany/Provence en Bretagne/Provence• to Sicily/Crete en Sicile/Crète• to Louisiana/Virginia en Louisiane/Virginie━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► en is also used with masculine countries beginning with a vowel.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• to Iran/Israel en Iran/Israël► to + masculine country/area au• to Japan/Kuwait au Japon/Koweït• to the Sahara/Kashmir au Sahara/Cachemire► to + plural country/group of islands aux• to the United States/the West Indies aux États-Unis/Antilles► to + town/island without article à• to London/Lyons à Londres/Lyon• to Cuba/Malta à Cuba/Malte• is this the road to Newcastle? est-ce que c'est la route de Newcastle ?• it is 90km to Paris ( = from here to) nous sommes à 90 km de Paris ; ( = from there to) c'est à 90 km de Paris• planes to Heathrow les vols mpl à destination de Heathrow► to + masculine state/region/county dans• to Texas/Ontario dans le Texas/l'Ontario• to Sussex/Yorkshire dans le Sussex/le Yorkshire━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► dans is also used with many départements.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• to the Drôme/the Var dans la Drôme/le Vare. ( = up to) jusqu'àf. ► to + person (indirect object) à━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When a relative clause ends with to, a different word order is required in French.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When translating to + pronoun, look up the pronoun. The translation depends on whether it is stressed or unstressed.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━h. (in ratios) he got a big majority (twenty votes to seven) il a été élu à une large majorité (vingt voix contre sept)i. ( = concerning) that's all there is to it ( = it's easy) ce n'est pas plus difficile que ça• you're not going, and that's all there is to it ( = that's definite) tu n'iras pas, un point c'est toutj. ( = of) de━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► A preposition may be required with the French infinitive, depending on what precedes it: look up the verb or adjective.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The French verb may take a clause, rather than the infinitive.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• well, to sum up... alors, pour résumer...• we are writing to inform you... nous vous écrivons pour vous informer que...━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► to is not translated when it stands for the infinitive.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• he'd like me to come, but I don't want to il voudrait que je vienne mais je ne veux pas• yes, I'd love to oui, volontiers2. adverb( = shut) to push the door to pousser la porte3. compounds(plural to-dos)• he made a great to-do about lending me the car il a fait toute une histoire pour me prêter la voiture ► to-ing and fro-ing noun allées et venues fpl* * *1. [tə], devant une voyelle [tʊ, tuː], emphatique [tuː]1) ( expressing purpose) pour2) ( linking consecutive acts)he looked up to see... — en levant les yeux, il a vu...
3) ( after superlatives) àthe youngest to do — le or la plus jeune à faire
‘did you go?’ - ‘no I promised not to’ — ‘tu y es allé?’ - ‘non j'avais promis de ne pas le faire’
‘are you staying? ’ - ‘I want to but...’ — ‘tu restes?’ - ‘j'aimerais bien mais...’
it is difficult to do something — il est difficile de faire quelque chose; ( expressing wish)
2.oh to be able to stay in bed! — hum ô pouvoir rester au lit!
1) ( in direction of) à [shops, school]; ( with purpose of visiting) chez [doctor's, dentist's]; ( towards) vers2) ( up to) jusqu'àto the end/this day — jusqu'à la fin/ce jour
3) ( in telling time)4) ( introducing direct or indirect object) [give, offer] àto me/my daughter it's just a minor problem — pour moi/ma fille ce n'est qu'un problème mineur
5) (in toasts, dedications) àto prosperity — à la prospérité; ( on tombstone)
6) ( in accordance with)7) (in relationships, comparisons)8) ( showing accuracy)9) ( showing reason)10) ( belonging to) depersonal assistant to the director — assistant/-e m/f du directeur
11) ( on to) [tied] à; [pinned] à [noticeboard etc]; sur [lapel, dress]12) ( showing reaction) à3. [tuː]to his surprise/dismay — à sa grande surprise/consternation
••that's all there is to it — ( it's easy) c'est aussi simple que ça; ( not for further discussion) un point c'est tout
what a to-do! — (colloq) quelle histoire! (colloq)
what's it to you? — (colloq) qu'est-ce que ça peut te faire?
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14 IN
in [ɪn]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition2. adverb3. adjective4. plural noun5. compounds━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━1. preposition━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► When in is an element in a phrasal verb, eg ask in, fill in, look up the verb. When it is part of a set combination, eg in danger, weak in, look up the other word.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in it/them ( = inside it, inside them) dedans• our bags were stolen, and our passports were in them on nous a volé nos sacs et nos passeports étaient dedansb. (people, animals, plants) chez► in + feminine countries, regions, islands en━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Feminine countries usually end in -e.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► en is also used with masculine countries beginning with a vowel or silent h.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in + masculine country au• in Japan/Kuwait au Japon/Koweït━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► Note also the following:━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in + plural country/group of islands aux━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━e. (month, year, season) en• in summer/autumn/winter en été/automne/hiver━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━f. ( = wearing) eng. (language, medium, material) en• in marble/velvet en marbre/veloursj. ( = while) en• in trying to save her he fell into the water himself en essayant de la sauver, il est tombé à l'eau2. adverba. ( = inside) à l'intérieur• she opened the door and they all rushed in elle a ouvert la porte et ils se sont tous précipités à l'intérieur━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━b. (at home, work)━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• you're never in! tu n'es jamais chez toi !• is Paul in? est-ce que Paul est là ?━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► to be in may require a more specific translation.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► in between + noun/pronoun entre• he positioned himself in between the two weakest players il s'est placé entre les deux joueurs les plus faibles• in between adventures, he finds time for... entre deux aventures, il trouve le temps de...► to be in for sth ( = be threatened with)• you don't know what you're in for! (inf) tu ne sais pas ce qui t'attend !• he's in for it! (inf) il va en prendre pour son grade ! (inf)► to be in on sth (inf) ( = know about)the new treatment is preferable in that... le nouveau traitement est préférable car...► to be well in with sb (inf) être dans les petits papiers de qn (inf)3. adjective• it's the in thing to... c'est très à la mode de...4. plural noun5. compounds• to have in-service training faire un stage d'initiation ► in-store adjective [detective] employé par le magasin* * *US Postal services abrév écrite = Indiana -
15 one
one [wʌn]1. adjective• one hot summer afternoon she... par un chaud après-midi d'été, elle...► one... the other• one girl was French, the other was Swiss une des filles était française, l'autre était suisse• the sea is on one side, the mountains on the other d'un côté, il y a la mer, de l'autre les montagnes► one thing ( = something that)one thing I'd like to know is where he got the money ce que j'aimerais savoir, c'est d'où lui vient l'argent• if there's one thing I can't stand it's... s'il y a une chose que je ne supporte pas, c'est...► one person ( = somebody that)one person I hate is Roy s'il y a quelqu'un que je déteste, c'est Royb. ( = a single) un seul• the one man/woman who could do it le seul/la seule qui puisse le faire• the one and only Charlie Chaplin! le seul, l'unique Charlot !c. ( = same) même2. noun• one, two, three un, deux, trois• I for one don't believe it pour ma part, je ne le crois pas━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• any one of them n'importe lequel (or laquelle)3. pronoun━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• would you like one? en voulez-vous un(e) ?► adjective + one━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► one is not translated.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• that's a difficult one! ( = question) ça c'est difficile !━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━► The article and adjective in French are masculine or feminine, depending on the noun referred to.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━• I'd like a big one ( = glass) j'en voudrais un grand• I'd like the big one ( = slice) je voudrais la grosse► the one + clause, phrase• the one who or that... celui qui (or celle qui)...• the one on the floor celui (or celle) qui est par terre• is this the one you wanted? c'est bien celui-ci (or celle-ci) que vous vouliez ?► one another l'un (e) l'autre4. compounds• his company is a one-man band (inf) il fait marcher l'affaire tout seul ► one-man show noun [of performer] spectacle m solo, one-man show m• it's a one-off (object) il n'y en a qu'un comme ça ; (event) ça ne va pas se reproduire ► one-on-one, one-one (US) adjective= one-to-one(US) = one-off► one-to-one, one-on-one, one-one (US) adjective [conversation] en tête-à-tête ; [training, counselling] individuel• to have a one-track mind n'avoir qu'une idée en tête ► one-upmanship (inf) noun art m de faire mieux que les autres• it's a one-way ticket to disaster (inf) c'est la catastrophe assurée ► one-woman adjective [business] individuel* * *Note: When one is used as a personal pronoun it is translated by on when it is the subject of the verb: one never knows = on ne sait jamais. When one is the object of the verb or comes after a preposition it is usually translated by vous: it can make one ill = cela peut vous rendre maladeFor more examples and all other uses, see the entry below[wʌn] 1.1) ( single) un/une2) (unique, sole) seulshe's one fine artist — US c'est une très grande artiste
3) ( same) même4) ( for emphasis)2.1) ( indefinite) un/une m/fcan you lend me one? — tu peux m'en prêter un/une?
every one of them — tous/toutes sans exception (+ v pl)
2) ( impersonal) ( as subject) on; ( as object) vousone would like to think that... — on aimerait penser que...
you're a one! — (colloq) toi alors!
I for one think that... — pour ma part je crois que...
4) ( demonstrative)the grey one — le gris/la grise
this one — celui-ci/celle-ci
which one? — lequel/laquelle?
that's the one — c'est celui-là/celle-là
5) ( in knitting)knit one, purl one — une maille à l'endroit, une maille à l'envers
6) ( in currency)one-fifty — ( in sterling) une livre cinquante; ( in dollars) un dollar cinquante
7) (colloq) ( drink)he's had one too many — il a bu un coup (colloq) de trop
8) (colloq) ( joke)have you heard the one about...? — est-ce que tu connais l'histoire de...?
9) (colloq) ( blow)to land ou sock somebody one — en coller une à quelqu'un (colloq)
10) (colloq) (question, problem)3.1) ( number) un m; ( referring to feminine) une fto throw a one — ( on dice) faire un un
2) ( person)4.her loved ones — ceux qui lui sont/étaient chers
as one adverbial phrase [rise] comme un seul homme; [shout, reply] tous ensemble5.one by one adverbial phrase [pick up, wash] un par un/une par une••to be one up on somebody — (colloq) avoir un avantage sur quelqu'un
to have a thousand ou million and one things to do — avoir un tas de choses à faire
См. также в других словарях:
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