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how do you say in French, "Take the fork to the kitchen" Is it "prend la fourch

French translation: Emporte la fourchette à la cuisine

18:45 Aug 27, 2000
English to French translations [Non-PRO]
English term or phrase: how do you say in French, "Take the fork to the kitchen" Is it "prend la fourch
ette a la cuisine" or "Emmene la fourchette a la cuisine." I have difficulty understanding the word "take" when translating into French from English, but never vice versa. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
nicolas (X)
French translation:Emporte la fourchette à la cuisine
Explanation:
I don't agree with "Emmène la fourchette à la cuisine" since the fourchette is not a person. The verbs emmener et amener are
used when you talk about persons.

Apporter is porter quelque chose à l'endroit où est quelqu'un.
If I am in the kitchen and I ask you for for the fork. Alors, tu m'apporteras la fourchette.

Emporter is prendre quelque chose avec soi quand on part d'un
lieu. If you are somewhere in the house and you are bringing the
fork to the kitchen, then tu emportes la fourchette à la cuisine.

Prends la fourchette dans la cuisine. Before you leave the kitchen,
take the fork.

A book that can help you to understand the subtilities of French and
that was made especially for English-speaking persons is Grammaire
française by Jacqueline Ollivier.

HTH
Pauline
Selected response from:

Pauline Côté
Canada
Local time: 12:16
Grading comment
Thanks for your response. I speak French fluently, but they are subtleties in the language I do not always understand. They French do, however, use "emporter" and "emmener" interchangeably in informal conversation. That's why I was confused. But "emmener" is supposed to be used only with people (animals) and "emporter" for objects. Thanks again
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
naEmmene la fourchette à la cuisine.
Agnès Bousteau
nasee below
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
naEmporte la fourchette à la cuisine
Pauline Côté
na"Apporte la fourchette à la cuisine" or else "Va porter la fourchette à la cuisine"
Louise Atfield


  

Answers


3 hrs
Emmene la fourchette à la cuisine.


Explanation:
La deuxième solution.


Bon courage,

Agnès


Agnès Bousteau
Local time: 18:16
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in pair: 19

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
Yolanda Broad
Louise Atfield
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10 hrs
see below


Explanation:
This is all to do with taking and bringing and the French and English approaches differ.

Take (prendre), as some other French verbs, uses the preposition 'à' or one of the dative conjunctive pronouns (me, te, lui, nous, leur) with the odd meaning of 'from'. 'Dans' or 'sur' are used too in certain circumstances also to mean 'take from'. English uses a much wider range of prepositions and uses them differently to boot! Certain verbs, of which 'take' is one, can take two objects : one direct, one indirect. Its takes a lot of practice to get used to handling them correctly. But I am deviating from your question.

Your question appears to turn upon the choice between 'emmener', 'apporter', 'porter' for 'take'.
The French 'prendre' (take) is often used where English would use (bring = meaning 'get', 'fetch'). A lot depends on who is doing the speaking, where he is in relation to the person to whom he is speaking and the place where the object (thing) in question is.

Take the fork to the kitchen =
-(with emmener):emmène la fourchette à la cuisine
-(with apporter) : apporte la fourchette à la cuisine
-(with prendre) : prend la fourchette à la cuisine

What you have to be careful about to convey your desried meaning is the use of 'à' or 'dans' with prendre.
You could still mean 'take the fork into the kitchen' if you were to say "apporte/emmène la fourchette dans la cuisine". 'Emmener' and 'porter' have a meaning of moving away from the speaker, taking (something)away from. If you try the same thing with 'prendre dans', the sense changes. "Prend la fourchette dans la cuisine" means "take the fork which is in the kitchen". You are telling someone to go and get it. The fork is already there, the person receiving the instructions is not. You have to go into the kitchen to get it.

There are tons of pages on these verbs, their use and meaning with various prepositions. They are great exam favourites as before you arrive at the instinctive use of them, you will have a few headaches.

Good luck.
Nikki


    Anglais A-Z (Hatier) 1998
    Glanville Price, Comprehensive French Grammar, 1999
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Local time: 18:16
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in pair: 882

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
Yolanda Broad
Louise Atfield
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

11 hrs
Emporte la fourchette à la cuisine


Explanation:
I don't agree with "Emmène la fourchette à la cuisine" since the fourchette is not a person. The verbs emmener et amener are
used when you talk about persons.

Apporter is porter quelque chose à l'endroit où est quelqu'un.
If I am in the kitchen and I ask you for for the fork. Alors, tu m'apporteras la fourchette.

Emporter is prendre quelque chose avec soi quand on part d'un
lieu. If you are somewhere in the house and you are bringing the
fork to the kitchen, then tu emportes la fourchette à la cuisine.

Prends la fourchette dans la cuisine. Before you leave the kitchen,
take the fork.

A book that can help you to understand the subtilities of French and
that was made especially for English-speaking persons is Grammaire
française by Jacqueline Ollivier.

HTH
Pauline


Pauline Côté
Canada
Local time: 12:16
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in pair: 88
Grading comment
Thanks for your response. I speak French fluently, but they are subtleties in the language I do not always understand. They French do, however, use "emporter" and "emmener" interchangeably in informal conversation. That's why I was confused. But "emmener" is supposed to be used only with people (animals) and "emporter" for objects. Thanks again

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
Louise Atfield
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

21 hrs
"Apporte la fourchette à la cuisine" or else "Va porter la fourchette à la cuisine"


Explanation:
As Muscade explained "emmener" and "ammener" both refer strictly to people or animals. In other words those words can only be used with something or someone who can walk to follow you. J'ammene ma fille a l'ecole", "il emmene son chien avec lui".

For an inanimate object that you take somewhere, you will use "apporter" as in the sentence I translated above. another example: "J'apporte de la creme glacee a ma fille". It basically means "porter quelque part".

Emporter has an idea of "taking away" rather than "taking somewhere". "Il part et emporte sa valise avec lui." (it doesn't say where). One exception perhaps is the sentence "il ne va pas l'emporter en paradis".

Hope this helps.

Louise Atfield
PRO pts in pair: 577
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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