INTERMEDIATE. LESSON #42. LA ROBE
- La salle, c’est réglé. C’est une bonne chose de faite. On s’en est pas trop mal sortis.- Oui, ce sera magnifique. Tu seras magnifique sous les voûtes avec ta robe blanche.
- Non, pas blanche.
- Pas blanche… hum… noire ?
- D’accord pour une robe claire mais comme c’est mon deuxième mariage, et entre parenthèses le tien aussi, je vais chercher une robe écrue ou peut-être vert clair.
- Et moi, je vais devoir porter un costume vert clair ?
- Les hommes n’ont guère le choix, de toute façon. Si. La cravate peut-être. Ah ! Une cravate vert clair, ce serait sympa…
TRANSLATION
- The question of the hall is settled. That’s one thing off our list. We did manage quite well !
- Yes, it will be magnificent. You’ll be magnificent under the vaults with your white dress.
- No, not white.
- Not white… ahem… black ?
- I’m OK for a light-colored dress but, as it’s my second wedding, and incidentally your second wedding too, I’ll look for an ecru dress or maybe a light green one.
- And, I’ll have to wear a light green suit too ?
- Men don’t really have a choice, anyway. Maybe the tie. Ah ! A light green tie, it would be great…
- The question of the hall is settled. That’s one thing off our list. We did manage quite well !
- Yes, it will be magnificent. You’ll be magnificent under the vaults with your white dress.
- No, not white.
- Not white… ahem… black ?
- I’m OK for a light-colored dress but, as it’s my second wedding, and incidentally your second wedding too, I’ll look for an ecru dress or maybe a light green one.
- And, I’ll have to wear a light green suit too ?
- Men don’t really have a choice, anyway. Maybe the tie. Ah ! A light green tie, it would be great…
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Entre parenthèses is a quite used expression. It means incidentally. It’s used to remember something to someone. A parenthèse (feminine word) is a punctuation sign, it’s a bracket. |
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Régler : to settle, to arrange, to fix, to organize. Écru, écrue : ecru, beige. Costume (masc.) : suit. Cravate (fém.) : tie. |
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S’en sortir means to pull through, to manage, to cope.
En is the adverbial pronoun we already met, it refers here to the situation.
S’en sortir is the infinitive form of the verb, s’en être sorti is the past infinitive form.
You conjugate it at the passé composé :
Je m’en suis sorti, tu t’en es sorti, nous nous en sommes sortis.
S’en être sorti is a really used form. People tell it when they’re happy something is managed, done, ended, more particularly when it was something difficult or stressful. We already saw that in French we used to make agree the color adjectives with the noun they qualify. That’s why we say : une robe blanche, une robe noire, une robe écrue but un costume blanc, un costume noir, un costume écru. But if the adjective is completed with another word that modify it, rules change : the color adjective remains unchanged.
Une robe vert clair / un costume vert clair.
Just remember the adjectives that may modify the color adjectives :
clair (light), foncé (dark), pâle (pale), vif (bright).
Some nouns can also do that : Blue is sometimes bleu ciel (sky blue) or bleu roi (royal blue). Green may be vert bouteille (bottle green) or vert sapin. Pink is rose bonbon (candy pink, hot pink). |
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Translate in English : 1. Il a les yeux bleu clair. 2. On s’est en bien sortis. 3. Oh, je suis en retard, j’ai un rendez-vous. Et, entre parenthèses, toi aussi ! 4. J’aime cette robe verte. Moi je préfère la robe bleu ciel. Translate in French : 1. You’ll be splendid in your beautiful white dress. 2. My suit is black and my tie is grey. 3. My new bag is dark red, I love it. 4. Did you see my pale rose gloves ? I lost them. Answers |
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