Hello,
I'm looking for the english equivalent for "La machine s'était enrayée".
It deals with a tennis player who has not played tennis for a long time and who starts to play again..........
Thank you
2006-12-02 21:36:39 · 10 answers · asked by lili 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Well it is just a metaphor to explain he can't play tennis as well as he did before. So either you choose to translate it literally (i.e. something like "the machine had jammed up") or you choose to explain it a bit more (something like "his tennis had become a bit rusty" though I'm not sur it makes sense it English).
2006-12-02 22:38:34 · answer #1 · answered by katiajm 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It definitely means the machine went wrong. But, in this context as in others, it does not mean a severe break down. A bit of sand might be enough for the machine to "s'enrayer". It does not mean, then, that the guy is finish, just that he got it wrong that one time. This phrase is quite often used for people, companies, policies etc.. Not only machines.
2006-12-03 18:06:32 · answer #2 · answered by Beatrice B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
literal translation means
the machine has stopped,
but that does not make sense, the whole of the text is often needed to make sense of a translation as sentence structure is often complex. If you have all the sentence I will try again
2006-12-03 05:44:46 · answer #3 · answered by Agustin-Jean F 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The machine was out of order.
For a tennis player it would mean that his engine was out of shape, he was not fit, something happened and he would need training again.
2006-12-05 19:18:01 · answer #4 · answered by Nicolette 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The machine has grown rusty
2006-12-03 08:48:50 · answer #5 · answered by fabee 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The machine had been stopped
2006-12-03 05:39:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yggdrasil Mithos Symphonia is the correct one; because of the tensing it has to be "The machine had been stopped." rather than "The machine stopped or rusted."
2006-12-03 06:01:27 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
the stopped machine became rusty.
2006-12-03 05:45:30 · answer #8 · answered by yiannis the greek 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
the machine had been stopped
i think
2006-12-03 05:43:20 · answer #9 · answered by bagmouss 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
jus go on to dictionary.com and it will translate anythin from french into english
2006-12-03 05:38:30 · answer #10 · answered by Whitey 2 · 0⤊ 4⤋