8 comment(s) for "Friday's French - capital soleil":

  1. I don’t think I’ve encountered any of these uses of capital! Actually I must have seen a couple of them, but they clearly didn’t sink in. I must have either guessed their meaning or got help with the sort of form they would be on.

  2. Pat in Toulouse

    The French useof the word “fitness” has rather the meaning of the English “exercise”, I think. My son used it at my goddaughter’s first communion, in a Catholic church (we never go to church), after having to stand up, sit down, kneel, stand up, sit down and stand up again: “Ce n’est pas de la religion, c’est du fitness!” My British friend translated that to: “This isn’t religion, it’s exercise!” Re. “capital”: I have been known to tell my kids: “Mon capital patience est bientôt épuisé…”

  3. conrad

    Hi
    I really like these Friday words sessions – it helps me to understand the French version instead of the Canadian version. I said Canadian since I am not a Québecois.

    Since you ask this is a word worth exploring – “entitlement”
    the online translations I found get close with – “droit” but does not get into nuances such as in
    The community lost their vistas because of a new housing project; they were convinced that they were entitled to these vistas, so it created great stress for years to come.

  4. conrad

    When someone has had something (often enjoyed) for a long time they feel they are entitled to continue having it. When it is threatened to be taken away they claim they have the right to keep it. so exploring if entitlement and right only translates to “droit” and as in this post about capital, it has to used in a sentence to create the different meanings where in English there are 2 words.
    I first came across this when a community had a vintage hospital which was going to be closed because they could not get Doctors to work there. the authorities wanted to consolidate services in a new facility 20 km away. They kept saying that they had the right to keep their hospital because they paid taxes so they should upgrade the older hospital at great expense to the tax payer – but complain when their taxes go up . A friend introduced the word entitlement rather then using “their right”.

  5. butcherbird

    I enjoyed your discussiopn of ‘capital’ this week – and I loved the photos of BLOIS in your other Blog segment. Keep up the great work.

Write a quick comment