Translation

[Legend of Tenshi]

Would someone be willing to translate a couple of lines of english into french for me? TT's birthday is coming up soon and she prefers french to english. Cheers.

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I'm looking for a good sig, wanna help?

[Legion]

Loadsa websites will do it for ya, just google

[Dragon Phoenix]

Babelfishing is not exactly what you want though. This came out just now by translating a few love lines from Dutch to English:

My dear, I cannot tell you how very I miss you. Each day thinks I of you, and meets again you to look for me....

[Legend of Tenshi]

I was worried what I might end up with if I fished for it. Something along the lines of the classic quote from Dude, where's my car? 'I heart you'.

What I would like translated is

To my dearest [name]

Wishing you all the best on you birthday.

With all my love

[name]

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I'm looking for a good sig, wanna help?

[Dragon Phoenix]

Thats's simple enough. I'll ask one of my French colleagues.

[Dragon Phoenix]

This is how a Frenchman would write it:

quote:

---

Ma puce, Mon amour, Mon bébé, Ma chérie, (take one of these)

Je te souhaite un joyeux anniversaire.

Je t'aime.

---

My colleague said that this might be too obvious you asked a Frenchman, so alternatively:

quote:

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Ma chère (name), (or simply just the name),

Je te souhaite un joyeux anniversaire.

Affectueusement.

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And if needed, you can expand with some sentences like : J'espère que tu vas bien, je pense à toi, je t'embrasse très fort.

[This message has been edited by Dragon Phoenix (edited 05-10-2004 08:19 AM).]

[d8P]

I'd go for "Mon amour", since it's world famous and doesn't require knowledge of French grammar, as "Ma chère ..." does (it'd be "Mon cher ..." for a guy).

"Je t'adore" uses a cognate but one which a native speaker wouldn't use often, making it more believable.

I wouldn't go for "Affectueusement" on the grounds that it means affectionately, which on the scale of passionate, romantic declarations of love is one step above "You're OK", and two steps below "I lovar you". And unless she's French, she will automatically translate it when she reads it.

"Je t'aime" is idiomatic, so you might want to avoid it. Besides, it's also the French for "I like you", and "adore" will sound stronger (again, unless she's French).

It might be difficult to convince her that you didn't get outside help for "Je te souhaite un joyeaux anniversaire" - online translators invariably yield the polite form, "Je vous ...". "Je te ..." is correct, maybe too much so. It's your call.

For the same reason, "J'espère que tu vas bien" might give the game away. "Je t'embrasse très fort" has only one clue, so is as safe as "Je te souhaite...".

[dave10000]

[Quailman]

I had four years of French. Here's what you need:

Le soleil embrasse les cieux de matin;
les oiseaux embrassent les papillons;
la rosée embrasse l'herbe de matin;
et vous, mon ami...

No need to thank me.

[Beartalon]

That's just a cheap way to get someone to kiss you. Poetry and a leading thought

"The sun kisses the morning sky;
The birds kiss the butterflies;
The dew kisses the morning grass;
and you, my friend...



[This message has been edited by Beartalon (edited 05-10-2004 09:27 PM).]

[Legend of Tenshi]

Thanks All She would know that I got help as I don't speak french. I know enough of romance linguistics (thanks mum!) to stumble through while reading but not much more.

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I'm looking for a good sig, wanna help?