The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #112409 Message #3468073
Posted By: Monique
18-Jan-13 - 10:12 AM
Thread Name: Origin: Little Shoemaker (French/English/Italian)
Subject: RE: Origin: Little Shoemaker (French/English/Italian)
Génie, what you have rephrased makes sense in English but the sentence as it is in French doesn't. Google translator didn't "notice" that "ta" can't be used with "danser", that "m'en apprend" needs a subject unless you consider that "Chanter" is the subject -then it's an infinitive, not an imperative-, besides, "en apprendre" means "to learn/to teach about something and it's followed by "sur/au sujet de/ à propos de"; it's either "apprendre quelque chose" (to learn/teach something), or "apprendre à +verb" (to learn/teach how to +verb) or "en apprendre sur/au sujet de..." so you can't have "m'en apprend à + verb" unless you speak some gibberish (I said gibberish, not slang). "À le gré: There's "à la + femenine noun in singular" but there's no "à le + masculine noun in singular" as there's no "à les + either gender noun in plural" because it's "au" and "aux". Ditto for "de le", "de les": it's "du" and "des". Then it can't be "à le gré". Moreover, though "gré" means "pleasure, will, fancy" and even if it were "au gré", you wouldn't have "au gré"-period. It's always "au gré de -who/whatever-" or "à mon gré, à ton gré..." (to someone/something/my/your... will/pleasure/fancy), or "de bon gré" (with good will) but it's a different pattern. So forget "à le gré".