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french help - simple construction (I think!)

hey

just wondering how one would say

But overlooking the picturesque hamlet are two giant cooling towers from a nuclear plant..

its really the grammar I'm after.. how you would construct it

another e.g.

sitting on the bench, I thought best to remain silent

thankyou!!!

Reply 1

groovydude

en asseyant sur la plage, je pensait bien a ...

Reply 2

heart shaped box

First one: Mais en surplomb au hameau pittoresque, se trouvent deux tours refroidissantes géantes d'une centrale nucléaire

Second one: Assise sur le banc, j'estimais qu'il serait meilleur de rester silencieuse

Edit- First one doesn't sound quite right :s:

Reply 3

Tim158

there are two different grammatical constructions in French that can be used for such purposes: Gérondif and Participe Présent

PP is: Sachant que le francais est difficile j'apprends une autre langue.
Knowing that French is difficult, I'm learning another language.

Gérondif: en asseyant sur la plage, je pensais bien a ... (as groovydude has posted already)

Reply 4

kftjkp

None of them really sound right - why not change your sentence to whilst I was sat on the bench... pendant que j'etais assis sur le banc, je pensais que ce serait la meilleur de rester silencieux.

Reply 5

jenny0502

thanks for your help! It's really the first one I need so the pendant que wouldnt work...?

Blank message.

Assis(e) sur le banc, je pensais qu'il était mieux de garder le silence

Shouldn't it be 'serait', as the english sentence seems to imply 'I thought it would be best...'?

Reply 8

jenny0502

Mais deux gigantesque tours de refroidissement appartenant à une centrale nucléaire surplombent le pittoresque hameau.
Mais en surplomb du hameau se trouvent deux gigantesque tours de refroidissement appartenant à une centrale nucléaire.

You can use the present, but it would be better to use imparfait instead of présent, like :

Mais deux gigantesque tours de refroidissement appartenant à une centrale nucléaire surplombaient le pittoresque hameau.
Mais en surplomb du hameau se trouvaient deux gigantesque tours de refroidissement appartenant à une centrale nucléaire.

thankyou v. much!

Blank message.

Ah well I'm not an expert lol.
But yeah, there are many ways to translate the sentences. Jenny, just avoid translating sentences too literally, word for word- just understand the meaning and put it in your own words, bar the technical words of course. (at least, that's how I usually do) :smile: