Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

fera demi-tour

English translation:

turn around

Added to glossary by Ana Maria Sousa (X)
Sep 14, 2004 23:57
19 yrs ago
French term

fera demi-tour

French to English Other Other
Mr xxx fera demi-tour avec la Mercedes noire

Proposed translations

+4
50 mins
Selected

turn around

Dans le sens ou il "revient" sur ses pas, "rebrousse chemin" en quelque sorte.
Peer comment(s):

agree Jean-Claude Gouin
19 mins
agree Martine Brault
1 hr
agree palani : seems quite appropriate
2 hrs
agree jarry (X)
7 hrs
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+1
2 mins

will do/did a U-turn

not sure which tense to use-depends you the story.

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Note added at 3 mins (2004-09-15 00:01:16 GMT)
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pls read-depends on the story (how it\'s being told).
Peer comment(s):

disagree Martine Brault : sorry, now that I have found the original, the context is different. http://www.abidjan.net/actualites/article/articles.asp?n=917...
1 hr
that's cheating!!! you found the context! there's not supposed to be any context..... waaaaaaaa :-) :-) :-) :-)
agree Richard Benham : It can still work here--as a metaphor.
4 hrs
agree laurawheeler
1 day 7 hrs
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5 hrs

was to (or would) do an about-turn / about-face / volte-face / U-turn / back-flip

Unfortunately, the link found by traviata seems to have stopped working just when I need it.

When I did look at the article, it was apparent that we are talking about an abrupt reversal of policy, and any one of the above metaphors would do the job.

The use of the future in a narration of past events is one of those quaint features of French usage which are hard to convey into English. It denotes future with respect to the time of the main narration of corse. The nearest we have is "was to" or "would".

E.g. He left office in 1977. He was not to return / would not return until 1986.
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9 hrs

back track

not quite the same but what one would say
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