Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
est amené à
English translation:
is to be/is destined to be/the intention is for...to be...(see question notes)
French term
United Kingdom
BA(Hons), Dip Trans IOL, MCIL London
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, English
est amené à
Who (French native speaker preferably) can explain to me the odd mixture of tenses here? It's talking about a website (the subject of which is irrelevant!) ... and I have translated it as: 'This site will be developed over the coming years'.... which I am pretty sure is what it means... but it seems rather an odd construction in the French and I wondered if it was usual...
Or am I missing something perhaps?! :)
| 4 +9 | Not a native speaker but |
Bourth (X)
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| 4 +1 | (see explanation) |
Michael McCain (X)
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| 3 | is bound to |
Judy Gregg
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Non-PRO (1): df49f (X)
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Proposed translations
Not a native speaker but
We'd probably say "is to be" (is a funny construction in itself when you think about it) which is not quite as direct, as immediate as "will be" which has notions of certainty.
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Note added at 22 mins (2006-05-22 09:28:39 GMT)
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In your context, it looks as if it might be a way of saying "Look, we know this is a crap site, but we have every intention of improving on it, just give us time".
| agree |
Tony M
: That would be my analysis exactly; 'est amené' because it is NOW that it needs to have something done in the future.
15 mins
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| agree |
Kim Hooper
1 hr
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| agree |
Adam Deutsch
2 hrs
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| agree |
Ingeborg Gowans (X)
: this hits it
3 hrs
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| agree |
df49f (X)
: is intended to is meant to ...
4 hrs
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| agree |
sporran
4 hrs
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| agree |
Patrice
9 hrs
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| agree |
Anne Girardeau
11 hrs
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| agree |
Gina W
2 days 17 hrs
|
(see explanation)
"Après l'installation, vous pouvez être amené à installer ou à mettre à jour des composants" >
"After install there are several cases where components need to be installed or updated"
"Si vous n'avez pas encore été amené à installer les composants de cette page, contactez son auteur pour connaître l'emplacement d'installation.">
" If you have not been prompted to install those components on this page, please contact the page author for the installation location."
A literal translation of your sample sentence might be "This site will need to undergo changes/be developed/etc. over the coming years", but I think your translation works just as well.
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Note added at 39 mins (2006-05-22 09:44:59 GMT)
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In the other Kudoz post Michelle is referring to, the suggested translation is "is likely to grow / is bound to grow". The context is there is market growth speculation.
However, "is likely to" or "is bound to" is probably not assertive enough in the case of a company talking about the future growth of its own website.
I would stick to your original translation or opt for the active voice and say "This site will evolve over the coming years."
From Harper Collins: évoluer (sujet): [civilisation, idées, marché, situation, technique] to evolve , to develop
Discussion