Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
on lui prodiguait des soins
English translation:
he was treated
Added to glossary by
Tony M
Jul 4, 2017 17:19
6 yrs ago
7 viewers *
French term
on lui prodiguait des soins
Non-PRO
French to English
Other
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
Est-ce qu'on peut dire "he was provided care" en parlant d'un patient dans un hôpital (pour dire qu'on lui prodiguait des soins)?
Je n'ai pas trop de contexte, juste ça:
Il dormait dans cette chambre et dans la pièce a coté on lui prodiguait des soins.
Je n'ai pas trop de contexte, juste ça:
Il dormait dans cette chambre et dans la pièce a coté on lui prodiguait des soins.
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 +6 | he was treated |
Tony M
|
| 3 | they provided him with comprehensive care |
Barbara Cochran, MFA
|
Change log
Jul 10, 2017 14:59: Tony M Created KOG entry
Proposed translations
+6
7 mins
Selected
he was treated
Your suggestion isn't really idiomatic in EN; to start with, in a medical context, we usually talk about 'treatment', unless it is, for example, 'nursing care'; that seems possibly not to be the case here.
Also, 'provided' is awkward — if you think of it more as 'fournir' or 'mettre à disposition', you may get a better feel for it; note too that it is difficult to use in the way you are trying to, since your structure requires it to be a transitive verb of which 'he' is therefore the direct object; following on from that, we need to add 'with': 'he was provided with care', which is clumsy and unnatural in EN.
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Note added at 8 minutes (2017-07-04 17:28:08 GMT)
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An alternative might be 'he received treatment' — it really depends on what the rest of your text goes on to say, and also what the overall context is.
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Note added at 13 minutes (2017-07-04 17:32:26 GMT)
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'prodiguer soins' simply means 'to give treatment', and the same verb is also used for e.g. giving first aid at the scene of an accident.
Here is an example from Robert + Collins:
malgré les soins que le médecin lui a prodigués > in spite of the care ou treatment the doctor gave him
Also, 'provided' is awkward — if you think of it more as 'fournir' or 'mettre à disposition', you may get a better feel for it; note too that it is difficult to use in the way you are trying to, since your structure requires it to be a transitive verb of which 'he' is therefore the direct object; following on from that, we need to add 'with': 'he was provided with care', which is clumsy and unnatural in EN.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 minutes (2017-07-04 17:28:08 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
An alternative might be 'he received treatment' — it really depends on what the rest of your text goes on to say, and also what the overall context is.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 13 minutes (2017-07-04 17:32:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
'prodiguer soins' simply means 'to give treatment', and the same verb is also used for e.g. giving first aid at the scene of an accident.
Here is an example from Robert + Collins:
malgré les soins que le médecin lui a prodigués > in spite of the care ou treatment the doctor gave him
Note from asker:
| I get it, thank you! |
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
8 mins
Barbara Cochran, MFA
United States
United States
Native in English
Specializes in field
United States
Laudable Lady Linguist
Native in: English 
Works in: Spanish to English, French to English, English to Spanish, and 3 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
16
they provided him with comprehensive care
You have the right idea, although "prodiguer" means to lavish someone with something. Hence, I would say "comprehensive care", meaning care that is very thorough.
Note from asker:
| Thank you Barbara. |
Peer comment(s):
| neutral |
Tony M
: That isn't what 'prodiguer' means in a medical kind of context, and adding 'comprehensive' amounts to gross over-translation.
2 mins
|
| neutral |
AllegroTrans
: why comprehensive? this is not in the source text; this may have been nothing more than basic care (but the actual meaning here is "treatment") for all we know and you are overtranslating
21 mins
|
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