translation??

[chrisjb]

I was trying to translate an msn conversation I was having with google translate... the following came out with stuff that either didn't make sense in context or wouldn't translate for some reason... Any of you guys know what they mean?

c'est pourrquoi je n'ai jamais demndé

J'ai pensé que vous pouriez avoir.

Mais vous n'avez pas à.

[claire92]

Its because I do not always like to ask.....

I think that you would be able to have

But you do not have to..



Sorry if this isn't write, I just got a bit confused, but thats what I think the general gist is.
Perhaps you were having trouble because some of its spelt wrong? so that could explain googles rejection?

[akira88]

Yeah its pourquoi and demandé.

[binders]

my french is broken, i got:
that’s why i never asked
i thought that you might (have)
but you don’t have to

[chrisjb]

ahhh! the first and last one fit now... the middle one is a bit odd, but that's alright, i don't think the middle one was all that important.

thanks claire92

edit: your middle one fits too blinders... dam spelling mistakes! thanks guys.

[ben92]

I'm nearly fluent in French and this has some serious grammatical errors - don't talk to Google translate or any other online translator. Full stop. Those who had trouble translating it take comfort in this fact.

What it SHOULD have said:

C’est pour ça que je n’ai jamais demandé. (That's why I never asked.)

Note - you say 'pour ça' instead of 'pourquoi' when the reason ('why') has already been identified. Use pourquoi when you're inquiring as to the reason.

Je croyais que vous auriez pu demander. (I thought you could have asked.)

Mais vous ne l’avez pas fait. (But you didn't.)

Edit: It's honestly hard to tell what a poor translation is trying to say, but it might have actually meant to say 'But you don't have to.' This would have been 'Mais vous ne devez pas le faire.')

[binders]

just curious Chris, were those sentences generated by a french speaker?

>ben92
which usage of pourquoi is this ?

C'est exact, mais tu avais tellement taillé de crayons
avec qu'aujourd'hui il est un peu émoussé et ne saurait
servir les soirs de cérémonie. C'est pourquoi je me suis
confié aux mains d'un coifieur.

from the TLFi at http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=66896190;

I've had a look in le bon usage, but i'm still trolling the index for usages.

[chrisjb]

^ sort of... generated by a soon-to-be french speaker. She just moved to france for a couple of years to work and insists on talking to everyone in french.

[tatianak]

what do you need for a study score of 30 in french???

[ninwa]

Note - you say 'pour ça' instead of 'pourquoi' when the reason ('why') has already been identified. Use pourquoi when you're inquiring as to the reason.

Are you sure? A lot of (supposedly) French native speakers seem to disagree with you here???
(edit: are you native or did you just spend time in France?)

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=679986
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=105617
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=68629
http://www.francaisfacile.com/forum/lire.php?num=7&msg=42260&titre=c%26%23039%3Best+pourquoi-c%26%23039%3Best+pour+cela

[ben92]

It'd appear I'm wrong then - they're interchangable.

I did say I was 'nearly' fluent .

Edit: I spent a semester in France.

[binders]

You'd think though that c'est pour ça would need an antecedent standing as the reason for which qch was done and that pourquoi wouldn't necessarily need one.