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Nov 10, 2011 20:48
12 yrs ago
French term

"...comme cela ne s'est pas peu produit dans sa vie,...

French to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
This is from an article, and I don't have a lot of context. I'm not sure whether the sentence means that the event in question rarely occurred in the subject's life, or if it "didn't happen infrequently" (i.e., more often than it should). I've been staring at the sentence too long, so any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +3 "...as has happened/happens often in his life"
4 +6 which has happened not infrequently in his life
4 +1 as if this wasn't something that (only) happened occasionally
3 +1 anything but a rare occurrence in his/her life
3 ... as if this wasn't something that happened a few times in his lifetime ...
3 not for the first time in his (or her) life
3 And, as always...

Discussion

chris collister Nov 11, 2011:
Rarely might work, though getting the register exactly right is always tricky. On the other hand, FR is famously more verbose than EN. // Re-reading this comment, it appears rather vague. "Not a rare occurrence" is clearer, I hope.
Jean-Claude Gouin Nov 10, 2011:
I AGREE ... with Sheila, Martin and Phil ...
philgoddard Nov 10, 2011:
Thanks. Even those few extra words make a big difference.
Laura Tridico (asker) Nov 10, 2011:
I'm not cagey. Really. But this isn't a publicly available document so I can't post a link to the article.

The full sentence is "Puis, comme cela ne s'est pas peu produit dans sa vie, [Person 1] s’est disputé avec [Person 2]." Then it goes on to discuss why they were arguing.
philgoddard Nov 10, 2011:
*Please* give us the whole sentence and the ones before and after it. If the reason you're being cagey is because of confidentiality, you can leave the person's name out. You say you have no context, but the whole article is context.
Laura Tridico (asker) Nov 10, 2011:
I posted as much as I could directly, but there isn't much more to that sentence to be honest.
Martin Cassell Nov 10, 2011:
with Sheila, need to see more: but looks as if it could something like
"... as had happened (to him/her) more than once in his/her life, ..."
Sheila Wilson Nov 10, 2011:
What is the sentence? We really need the whole thing, at the very least. Translating a clause in isolation could give a very misleading result.

Proposed translations

+3
1 hr
Selected

"...as has happened/happens often in his life"

I would suggest saying this the opposite way around would work better in English although obviously without further context deciding exactly which phrase would suit the situation is harder.
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M : I agree, Suzi! Maybe "as (seems to have) happened quite a lot in his life"
4 mins
agree mimi 254
12 hrs
agree Liliane Hatem
20 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you!"
+1
13 mins

as if this wasn't something that (only) happened occasionally

I would also suggest using a synonym for occasionally, such as periodically, sporadically...

And "only" being optional.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 mins (2011-11-10 21:05:03 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or as an afterthought:

Is if this wasn't an uncommon occurrence in his life

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 23 mins (2011-11-10 21:12:00 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Typo in added note above:

AS if this wasn't...
Peer comment(s):
agree Verginia Ophof
20 hrs
Thank you.
Something went wrong...
+6
8 mins

which has happened not infrequently in his life

You forgot to include the context, so this may need adapting, but this is what it means. If you want to avoid the double negative "as has often happened in his life" would be OK too.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2011-11-10 21:50:53 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Now that we have some context, you could also say "as so often in his life" or even "not for the first time in his life".
Peer comment(s):
agree Ingeborg Gowans (X) : this is the way I understood it, too somewhat "understated" in the original text
9 mins
agree Carol Gullidge : yes, I hadn't spotted the "peu" and therefore missed the double negative! This works even without the context
30 mins
agree emiledgar
49 mins
agree Jennifer Forbes
10 hrs
agree Pritha Bhatnagar
13 hrs
agree Laura Nagle (X)
16 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 hr

... as if this wasn't something that happened a few times in his lifetime ...

*


Something went wrong...
12 hrs

not for the first time in his (or her) life

you could even shorten it.... the art of understatement
Something went wrong...
13 hrs

And, as always...

Another way to say the same thing...
Something went wrong...
+1
3 days 20 hrs

anything but a rare occurrence in his/her life

Person 1 quarrelled with Person 2, anything but a rare occurrence in his/her life...
Just an idea, I am not a native speaker so not sure the English flows well.
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M : I like the expression, which flows just fine for me; only I'm not entirely sure how well it fits in this particular sentence...
14 hrs
Thanks Tony
Something went wrong...
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