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| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6826 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 15 January 2010 at 9:21am | IP Logged |
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Can someone tell me the differences between:
1) On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur 2) On voit bien qu'avec le cœur 3) On ne voit bien avec le cœur I'm not sure what this "ne" does in the sentence and why you need "que" before avec. Such as "qu'avec" and "avec" Thanks. Edited by Fasulye on 15 July 2010 at 1:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 7 15 January 2010 at 10:06am | IP Logged |
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The construction "ne + verb + que" means something like "only"
Example: J(e n)'ai qu'une petite amie! = I do not have but one girlfriend! / I only have one girlfriend! 1) On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur [One not sees well but with the heart] or "You don't see well/clearly except with the heart" as in, the through the heart is the only way that one may see clearly. 2) On voit bien qu'avec le cœur Same meaning as sentence 1, but the "ne" is just omitted here, as it is in colloquial speech. 3) On ne voit bien avec le cœur This just means "One doesn't see well/clearly with the heart" 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| WANNABEAFREAK Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong cantonese.hk Joined 6826 days ago 144 posts - 185 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Cantonese Studies: French | Message 3 of 7 15 January 2010 at 11:19am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for that explanation:
but, what is the difference between "qu'avec" and "avec"? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5468 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 4 of 7 15 January 2010 at 11:23am | IP Logged |
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Je rajouterais que phrase 3 son très vieux et démodé, et qu'on ajouterais toujours un 'que' dans la langue parlée. Edited by elvisrules on 15 January 2010 at 11:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 7 15 January 2010 at 11:25am | IP Logged |
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1) On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur
2) On voit bien qu'avec le cœur 3) On ne voit bien avec le cœur in 1 you do not see well EXCEPT with the heart ---> you see well with the heart, but not with anything else 2 is a spoken popular form of 1, where "ne has been left out in 3 you do not see well with the heart, and nothing else is discussed. But in modern French you would almost always have a "pas" in the sentence ("On ne voit PAS bien avec le coeur"). The old literary construction is sometimes seen with an irregular form of pouvoir: "puis" or with "saurais" (from savoir). In fact "ne" is the original negation in Old French, and "pas" was just a reinforcement of that negation ... but "ne" is often left out in Modern Spoken French And then there is one more construction in the family: 4. On ne voit PAS bien QU'avec le coeur .. which roughly has the same meaning as 1 que + avec = qu'avec Edited by Iversen on 15 January 2010 at 11:34am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| elvisrules Tetraglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5468 days ago 286 posts - 390 votes Speaks: French, English*, Dutch, Flemish Studies: Lowland Scots, Japanese, German | Message 6 of 7 15 January 2010 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
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though 'pas bien' sounds strange there and wouldn't be used, 'mal' would be instead
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| OlafP Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5434 days ago 261 posts - 667 votes Speaks: German*, French, English | Message 7 of 7 16 January 2010 at 1:08pm | IP Logged |
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The "ne" of the negation seems to get dropped in casual language only with some verbs, like avoir, savoir, and vouloir. I do it myself with these three, unless I want to sound more formal, but wouldn't do so in different contexts.
There also is a construction in French where the "ne" stands alone and doesn't negate the phrase. This is used only on a distinguished level and probably sounds inappropriate in casual conversation. It's called "ne explétif", and one should at least be aware of it, otherwise some sentences in a literary text may seem incomprehensible. Here is a good explanation: http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa011901e.htm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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