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Could someone possibly help me with these (short) translations? French

I'm going on a school exchange to France, where we will be doing work experience. We have to send a letter to our employee, however now we're on study leave I'm not at school so can't ask a teacher for help. Before we went on study leave the majority of my letter was checked, but we only found out our placement details yesterday.

Is this setence correct?:

Le stage à la mairie m’intéresse particulièrement puisque je trouve les politiques et la manière qu’une ville est organisé fascinante.

Also, how would I translate:

I'm looking forward to having a new experience.

and.......a copy of my CV (what is the French equivalent to CV? Is it resumé?)

Thank you in advance for your help!
Reply 1
TheatreLovely
I'm going on a school exchange to France, where we will be doing work experience. We have to send a letter to our employee, however now we're on study leave I'm not at school so can't ask a teacher for help. Before we went on study leave the majority of my letter was checked, but we only found out our placement details yesterday.

Is this setence correct?:

Le stage à la mairie m’intéresse particulièrement puisque je trouve les politiques et la manière qu’une ville est organisé fascinante.

Also, how would I translate:

I'm looking forward to having a new experience.

and.......a copy of my CV (what is the French equivalent to CV? Is it resumé?)

Thank you in advance for your help!

As I was explaining to someone else, politiques with an s isn't politics but policies. It may mean political (as an adjective) in some cases like "Sciences politiques", but when you mean politics, the singular of the word is what you're looking for - French considers it like a discipline/subject if you will.
So you should write: "je trouve la politique et (...)"

Que isn't right here too, it should be "dont" (I can't explain why though)
"je trouve la politique et la manière dont une ville est organisée fascinante."

"I'm looking forward to" doesn't have a direct translation in French (not on top of my head anyway), so reformulating to something like "I can't wait to" or 'I am very impatient to" (not sure that's actually said in English though, it sounds weird!) is the way to go:
J'ai (grande) hâte de - I can't wait to
Je suis impatient(e) de - I'm impatient to

CV stands for curriculum vitae (sp?), that's latin, so the same in French. Résumé is a sum up of something (movie, book, etc).
Reply 2
Xurvi
As I was explaining to someone else, politiques with an s isn't politics but policies. It may mean political (as an adjective) in some cases like "Sciences politiques", but when you mean politics, the singular of the word is what you're looking for - French considers it like a discipline/subject if you will.
So you should write: "je trouve la politique et (...)"

Que isn't right here too, it should be "dont" (I can't explain why though)
"je trouve la politique et la manière dont une ville est organisée fascinante."

"I'm looking forward to" doesn't have a direct translation in French (not on top of my head anyway),
so reformulating to something like "I can't wait to" or 'I am very impatient to" (not sure that's actually said in English though, it sounds weird!) is the way to go:
J'ai (grande) hâte de - I can't wait to
Je suis impatient(e) de - I'm impatient to

CV stands for curriculum vitae (sp?), that's latin, so the same in French. Résumé is a sum up of something (movie, book, etc).


J'attends avec impatience? Probably a bit too informal for here though :dontknow:
Reply 3
TheatreLovely
I'm going on a school exchange to France, where we will be doing work experience. We have to send a letter to our employee, however now we're on study leave I'm not at school so can't ask a teacher for help. Before we went on study leave the majority of my letter was checked, but we only found out our placement details yesterday.

Is this setence correct?:

Le stage à la mairie m’intéresse particulièrement puisque je trouve les politiques et la manière qu’une ville est organisé fascinante.

Also, how would I translate:

I'm looking forward to having a new experience.

and.......a copy of my CV (what is the French equivalent to CV? Is it resumé?)

Thank you in advance for your help!


I would translate your first sentence like this...

"Le stage à la maire m'intéresse particulièrement puisque je trouve que la politique et l'organisation d'une ville sont fascinantes"

If you don't want to use the term "politics", you can substitute "la politique" with "les affaires"...
In addition, if you are talking to an employee or smth like that, you may want to use "Ce stage" instead of "Le stage"...but that's not very important.
Finally, you can use the active form (maybe more used than the passive one), "Ce stage à la mairie m'intéresse particulièrement puisque je suis fasciné par la politique et l'organisation des villes"

CV is also CV in French (pronounce "sévé" ), and to say "I am looking forward to having a new experience", you could say:

"J'ai hâte de vivre cette nouvelle expérience",
"J'attends avec impatience cette nouvelle expérience" (not that informal)
Reply 4
xmarilynx
J'attends avec impatience? Probably a bit too informal for here though :dontknow:

The problem here would be the implicit almost subconscious meaning of "attendre", as though you do nothing but wait for these new experiences. So definitely not the best for this kind of letter.
But you're right, that's a good translation otherwise in less formal contexts.

Edit:

paronomase
If you don't want to use the term "politics", you can substitute "la politique" with "les affaires"...
In addition, if you are talking to an employee or smth like that, you may want to use "Ce stage" instead of "Le stage"...but that's not very important.
Finally, you can use the active form (maybe more used than the passive one), "Ce stage à la mairie m'intéresse particulièrement puisque je suis fasciné par la politique et l'organisation des villes"

Politique (politics) =/= les affaires (business)
The Ce/Le remark is a good one though. Well it doesn't matter too much anyway.
I have heard some people here saying the active form is more used in French than the passive and that when we can use the Active one you should. Well, no. Both are valid, it depends on your emphasis. But in this case the point is moot because OP didn't use the passive form but the active form. What you did is just re-arrange the groups in the sentence basically...
Thanks everyone!
Reply 6
Xurvi
The problem here would be the implicit almost subconscious meaning of "attendre", as though you do nothing but wait for these new experiences. So definitely not the best for this kind of letter.
But you're right, that's a good translation otherwise in less formal contexts.

Edit:


Politique (politics) =/= les affaires (business)
The Ce/Le remark is a good one though. Well it doesn't matter too much anyway.
I have heard some people here saying the active form is more used in French than the passive and that when we can use the Active one you should. Well, no. Both are valid, it depends on your emphasis. But in this case the point is moot because OP didn't use the passive form but the active form. What you did is just re-arrange the groups in the sentence basically...


True BUT politics is not used (In French at least) for a "village" or something that has a "mairie". Politics is the way the government runs the country, whereas "les affaires" evokes a small community of people organising events, etc.

Concerning the active/passive, I said "maybe more used" mainly because I hear it more, and I am French. This said, people who learn French at school are maybe taught the contrary...but it doesn't really matter.

Finally, he did use the passive form. The "Je trouve" is not active, it is a way to express yourself like " Je pense ". However, using a verb of opinion, he just uses another form of passive sentences (the other one being" politics, etc. me fascinent"...yeah I'm a grammar geek.
Reply 7
paronomase
True BUT politics is not used (In French at least) for a "village" or something that has a "mairie". Politics is the way the government runs the country, whereas "les affaires" evokes a small community of people organising events, etc.

Concerning the active/passive, I said "maybe more used" mainly because I hear it more, and I am French. This said, people who learn French at school are maybe taught the contrary...but it doesn't really matter.

Finally, he did use the passive form. The "Je trouve" is not active, it is a way to express yourself like " Je pense ". However, using a verb of opinion, he just uses another form of passive sentences (the other one being" politics, etc. me fascinent"...yeah I'm a grammar geek.


I'm French myself too :P

And yes, politique is used for other things than the governments... I personally never heard of Affaires being used for anything else than business. Where are you from?
I can assure you I hear quite often things like "La politique de la ville est de...", and never "Les affaires de la ville..."

Je trouve is the active form.
"je trouve la politique et la manière dont une ville est organisée fascinantes."
Red: subject
Green: verb
Orange: verb complement (Direct, "COD" )
Blue: Adjective ("adjectif attribut" if you must know)

I really can't see where you find the passive form here. You don't say "La politique est trouvée fascinante par moi", which would be the Passive form: subject, verb with the auxiliary, and the "complément d'agent" following "par".

Lastly, as I already said, the form active/passive chosen depends on the emphasis you want; ie.
La lettre a été ouverte - passive, emphasis on the fact the letter was opened.
J'ai ouvert la lettre - active, emphasis on the fact I was the one opening the letter.
None are more heard than the other per se.
Reply 8
TheatreLovely
Le stage à la mairie m’intéresse particulièrement puisque je trouve fascinante la politique et la manière dont/de laquelle une ville est organisée/s'organise

I'm looking forward to having a new experience.
Je suis impatiente d'en faire une nouvelle expérience.
J'espère que cette expérience me plaira
Je suis certaine que ca me sera une bonne expérience

and.......a copy of my CV (what is the French equivalent to CV? Is it resumé?)
I thought it was resume but then read the comments


Tbh it's only a letter to someone you've already got work experience with, it doesn't matter hugely that all your phrasing is right. Only thing that's really wrong with your sentence is having fascinante at the end. French people even get away with the "que" in a complex sentence sometimes.
Reply 9
Arekkusu
Tbh it's only a letter to someone you've already got work experience with, it doesn't matter hugely that all your phrasing is right. Only thing that's really wrong with your sentence is having fascinante at the end. French people even get away with the "que" in a complex sentence sometimes.

What? Not at all. it's not like in English where you have to have the adjectives in front of the noun, in French it's ok to have them after it. There even are some cases where you need it after the noun:
Un vieil ami - an old friend (known for a long time)
Un ami vieux - an old friend (aged)
In this case, fascinante is correctly placed...

What do you mean by "getting away with the que" anyway?
Reply 10
Xurvi
What? Not at all. it's not like in English where you have to have the adjectives in front of the noun, in French it's ok to have them after it. There even are some cases where you need it after the noun:
Un vieil ami - an old friend (known for a long time)
Un ami vieux - an old friend (aged)
In this case, fascinante is correctly placed...

What do you mean by "getting away with the que" anyway?


To me, that sounds way too much of an English construction. The adjective is going after a crazy long noun phrase (acting as a noun) so it's probably grammatically ok but to me it would sound a lot better to have fascinante come in first just because it sounds a little confused with it at the end.

I know about the adjectives, I'm even doing french at uni :facepalm:

With the que I mean sometimes French people simplify these sorts of complicated "of which" things and are just like "**** it, I'll say que" when the sentence is really long and complicated but I wouldn't do it in a letter.
Reply 11
Arekkusu
To me, that sounds way too much of an English construction. The adjective is going after a crazy long noun phrase (acting as a noun) so it's probably grammatically ok but to me it would sound a lot better to have fascinante come in first just because it sounds a little confused with it at the end.

I know about the adjectives, I'm even doing french at uni :facepalm:

With the que I mean sometimes French people simplify these sorts of complicated "of which" things and are just like "**** it, I'll say que" when the sentence is really long and complicated but I wouldn't do it in a letter.

As a matter of fact, I'd consider your own suggestion to be the one English-like. The noun phrase being a direct complement to the verb should be the closest to it, so having the adjective between the verb and the noun would be weird.
I agree sometimes it would be best to have the adjective before the noun phrase, but in this case, the best is how OP has put it.

The getting away with the que thing is true, however most often than not it's because they don't speak correctly or have a "memory lapse" and use Que instead of the correct word to keep the flow and not have a huge blank in the middle of their speech.
It's not something you should get used to and try to do, on the contrary.

Good for you if you're doing French at uni, I forgot to telepathically guess your course.
I'm a native, so I would think my own feeling of how sentences constructions sound more French would be right.
There are similarities between languages, so even if it does sound like an English construction, it doesn't mean it isn't a good French construction either...

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