20 November 2014

[Sujet inanimé ou abstrait] + [permet de + infinitif]

Dominique Jonkers on the infernal overuse of 'permet de' and variants by French authors.

The solutions Dominique proposes for how to improve the French in documents using this formula apply equally well to how to translate them and, at the same time, make the target-language version better than the original.

Solution: Dans 9 cas sur 10, voire davantage, vous remplacerez avantageusement « permettre de + infinitif » par un verbe unique, porteur de sens -- j’ai envie de dire : « savoureux ».

Thanks Dominique.

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