Weekend workout: Trouble on the way to holiday

Chris W.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

Weekend workout: Trouble on the way to holiday

In that exercise there is one sentence whose English doesn't quite jibe with me:

-- The kids finished the ones we'd brought.

I don't think the use of past perfect tense here corresponds to what you would actually use in English. You'd be more likely to hear:

-- The kids finished the ones we brought.

But I realize that in French you would actually use le plus-que-parfait:

-- Les enfants ont finis celles que nous avions emportées.

As it stands, the English sounds a bit off but it gives a strong hint as to which tense to use in the French version. Still, I would use imperfect in English and, if necessary, provide a hint for the French.

What do the professionals think?

Asked 5 years ago
GruffNative French expert teacher in KwiziqCorrect answer

The past perfect sounds perfectly natural to me there, but I didn't look at the sentence before so it may be a contextual thing. However, your point about the tense hint stands either way - we should be clear which tense is expected, especially as different speakers of English can actually use different tenses depending on where they're from etc. Thanks for pointing this out!

Weekend workout: Trouble on the way to holiday

In that exercise there is one sentence whose English doesn't quite jibe with me:

-- The kids finished the ones we'd brought.

I don't think the use of past perfect tense here corresponds to what you would actually use in English. You'd be more likely to hear:

-- The kids finished the ones we brought.

But I realize that in French you would actually use le plus-que-parfait:

-- Les enfants ont finis celles que nous avions emportées.

As it stands, the English sounds a bit off but it gives a strong hint as to which tense to use in the French version. Still, I would use imperfect in English and, if necessary, provide a hint for the French.

What do the professionals think?

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