Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
Il fallait y penser
English translation:
Someone was bound to think of it; someone was bound to come up with that idea
French term
Il fallait y penser
It seems to me there are maybe two uses of this phrase, one to mean "It had to be done", in the sense of it being inevitable; the other is slightly different, in the sense of: "C'est tellement simple, mais il fallait y penser!" as a sort of reaction to serendipity, as it were...
I'm sure we must have similar reactions in English, (US English please!) but I'm blowed if I can think of the appropriate expression.
All help gratefully received.
Thanks as ever.
Jul 25, 2008 16:06: Carol Gullidge Created KOG entry
Jul 25, 2008 16:06: Carol Gullidge changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/134264">Carol Gullidge's</a> old entry - "Il fallait y penser"" to ""Someone was bound to think of it""
Non-PRO (1): writeaway
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Proposed translations
Someone was bound to think of it
agree |
Jean-Claude Gouin
: I'm surprised that nobody else agreed with you ...
1 day 12 mins
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many thanks 1045!
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That's all that we need!
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Note added at 6 mins (2008-07-24 22:58:17 GMT)
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Or more contemporary: somebody had to do it!
Yes, somebody had to do it is certainly better than it had to be done. Thanks! |
agree |
Melissa McMahon
: I think 'somebody had to do it' is good - 'bemused resignation' would be Dz's attitude to BHL
1 hr
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Thanks, Melissa
|
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agree |
David Goward
: with Melissa on this one.
7 hrs
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Thanks, David
|
someone should think about it
disagree |
writeaway
: wrong tense and wrong meaning.
4 hrs
|
t
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|
disagree |
David Goward
: A direct translation (even a correct one) is not what's called for here.
6 hrs
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Thank you very much
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someone had to come up with it/have the idea
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Note added at 1 hr (2008-07-25 00:07:31 GMT)
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"Isn't it amazing that someone had to come up with the concept of monitoring blood pressure during surgery?" http://www.codeblog.com/archives/the_scoop/grand_rounds_209....
agree |
Carol Gullidge
: in retrospect, this makes a lot of sense, and you were the 1st to come up with this particular interpretation :)
1 day 8 hrs
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thanks Carol -- there are all kinds of ways of approaching this, mine was really aimed at the set phrase ("c'est simple ..."); and my phrasing isn't so far from yours, or a number of others.
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it's just a matter of realization
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Note added at 1 hr (2008-07-24 23:53:26 GMT)
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For the first sense (inevitability) you could say: "it was bound to occur"
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Note added at 1 hr (2008-07-25 00:10:29 GMT)
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But in this sense of inevitability the french expression would preferably be "il aurait fallu y penser"
well, I guess we had it coming/comin'
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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-07-25 01:47:59 GMT)
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Agree with your point, Susan. I was thinking of how a philosopher, faced with all this marketing stuff might conclude (philosophically), "Why shouldn't we have to put up with it like everybody else?" My answer sort of came from that angle. Think Melissa's idea is an improvement though!
Thanks! This is a good one. Although it does connotate punishment a bit (if you Google it all sorts of frightening stuff comes up!) |
"We should have seen it coming" would be a pretty good translation in my context. I'm not sure Dz was resigned to BHL, I get the impression he was pretty close to furious with the whole business, but he didn't enjoy wasting his energy in that way (and rightly so!) Anyway, as for what was the rpoblem with translating the phrase, it is so common in French, I was sure there must be an equally common one in English - something with "seen it coming" is probably it. |
agree |
Melissa McMahon
: a variation would be "(I guess) we should have seen that one coming" - less//cool! btw, meant to finish with "less 'punitive'" :)
56 mins
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Melissa, I think your variation is excellent!
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it should have been thought of
disagree |
David Goward
: No, a literal translation is not what's required here as it loses the irony of the French.
1 hr
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Why didn't anyone think of that before? (ironic)
Now, why didn't I think of that?
I like Helen's and Dave's suggestions, and Melissa's contributions but I do think that it would be good to keep 'think' or 'idea' in the En because that's what these guys are all about. He's criticising BHL's thoughts, his ideas, his philosophy. I don't think he's suggesting that if BHL hadn't done it somebody else would have.
agree |
MatthewLaSon
: I think that this is more the idea. I do not think that "falloir" is about "inevitability". This is meant to be ironic. My translation is more literal, but could viewed as ironic in context.
10 hrs
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Thank you, Matthew.
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there had to be a first time (I suppose)
We might have expected it
(1st: That took some thinking!) (2nd: It's simple, but still someone had to come up with the idea)
1st example: Il fallait y penser!
This is like saying "il fallait le faire" and replace "le faire" by "y penser". In other words, it means "That took some thinking" instead of saying "That took some doing!"
2nd example (which I'm more sure of)
C'est simple, il faut y penser/il fallait y penser = Something may be simple, but, still, someone has to come with the idea
I'm not going to comment on irony here, as I don't understand the context well enough.
I hope this helps.
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Note added at 28 days (2008-08-22 01:33:13 GMT) Post-grading
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I'm not really in agreement in Emma Pauley's translation. For some reason, I am unable to delete my agree on this webpage. It's really strange....
Discussion