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Mar 26, 2016 12:00
8 yrs ago
8 viewers *
French term

A l'issue de l'audition, le député de Haute-Savoie expliquera qu'il était....

Non-PRO French to English Art/Literary Journalism
Tense issue?

I am looking to translate this
A l'issue de l'audition, le député de Haute-Savoie expliquera qu'il
était "contre le huis clos décidé au dernier moment"

into English but (unless I am being thick) there is a tense issue.
'At the end of the hearing, the deputy WILL comment that - expliquer is in the future simple tense - however in English this doesn't make sense because it is from a newspaper that is being reported.

Ideas anyone? Logic would say that I should write in the past tense but the verb doesn't allow that

Thank you!
Change log

Mar 28, 2016 16:27: Yolanda Broad changed "Term asked" from "A l\\\'issue de l\\\'audition, le député de Haute-Savoie expliquera qu\\\'il était...." to "A l\'issue de l\'audition, le député de Haute-Savoie expliquera qu\'il était...."

Discussion

Jennifer Levey Mar 27, 2016:
@JR1993 Whatever you do in life, don’t asume the use of tenses in French and English is the same. It ain’t.

What’s happening here, in (very) simple/istic terms, is that the expresión “a l’issue de l’audition” precisely defines a moment in time with effect from which everything else in the sentence is expressed in the future tense.
Nikki Scott-Despaigne Mar 26, 2016:
@JR1993 Your gut feeling is correct. This is a common use of the future in French, which has several options for a rendering in English, depending on context. Your instinct tells you that the past tense is needed here. Unless there is a stylistic reason to use another tense (and others are possible), then the past tense works perfectly well. Writeaway's suggestion of "went on to explain" is another perfectly good solution.

If you are not familiar with this type of use and/or need a quick reminder or gen up, this may help : http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/future_tense_usa...

To see if the meaning of "to go on to + infinitive" fits, a sort of emphasis on a sequence of events, you might bear in mind whether "à l'issue de" is sufficient to justify that emphasis. There may be something in the text leading up to this point, in which case you may find it justified.
Check EN sources for meaning if you think it useful for your translation.
See : http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/go-on
writeaway Mar 26, 2016:
imo it's actually past tense explained or went on to explain. just a choice of style. French has loads of options.

Proposed translations

7 mins
French term (edited): [use of tenses] expliquera qu\'il était....

would...

This is a common construction in FR, and is not a true future tense; it often translates in EN with the sense of 'would', e.g. 'he studied sculpture and would go on to be a great artist'; sometimes 'was to', as in 'A precocious child, she was to go on to be one of the leading mathematicians of her time'

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 17 minutes (2016-03-26 12:17:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

As W/A points out, in this particular instance these kind of constructions probably wouldn't be the best solution.

I think they are right with 'went on to say', which is pretty much a parallel expression in EN to 'would go on to say' — it all depends what the time perspective of the writer is as to which fits best.
Peer comment(s):

neutral writeaway : 'went on to' or simply 'explained'. it's a newspaper article.
10 mins
Yes, indeed! I was merely seeking to guide Asker on this particular construction
neutral Nikki Scott-Despaigne : I'd go with "explained", perhaps the most usual solution for this use of tense. "Went on to explain" would require something in what has gone before to justify it, but it remains possible. I don't think "would" is suited to this particular instance Ton'.
23 mins
Yes, indeed! I was merely seeking to guide Asker on this particular construction
Something went wrong...
13 hrs
French term (edited): A l'issue de l'audition [il ]expliquera qu'il était....

After the hearing, [he] explained that he was ...

Forget the apparent mis-match of tenses, concentrate on making sense in the translation.

A l'issue de l'audition, le député de Haute-Savoie expliquera qu'il
était ...
-->
After the hearing, the deputy for Haute-Savoie explained that he was ...
Something went wrong...
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