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French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Architecture / apartment description
French term or phrase:entrée avec comble
This is in a description of an apartment for lease. I imagine it means some sort of entryway with a slanted ceiling perhaps? If anyone has a better grasp on architectural terms than I do, I would appreciate suggestions.
context:
Un appartement de type 3 pièces offrant: une entrèe avec comble, une cuisine américaine, un séjour, deux chambres, une salle d'eau salle de bain, un WC séparé, une mezzanine et une cheminée fonctionnelle.
It seems that entrée avec comble doesn't make much sense either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ entryway is just something that popped into my head so yes, it's probably used in EN-US :-) I hadn't even thought about it not being an entrance! While it makes me want to throw up my hands in despair, it also helps me think of it from a different angle. Sad lazy pun intended.
To start with 'lofted' doesn't really make uch sesne, but at best would suggest it has a loft (unlikely!) — in fact, 'lofty' might even be closer, though implausible in terms or register! And then in EN-GB we almost certainly wouldn't say 'entryway' — perhaps you do in American EN? Don't forget 'entrée' in FR very often means 'hall' — unless there is some other 'couloir' etc. Given this seems to be a farily small flat, I doubt it would have a very grand entrance, followed by a separate halway; nor even a separate 'lobby'; it really all depends if the entry goes straight into the living room (in which case some kind of possibly small 'lobby' is feasible), or whether in fact this 'entrée is a 'hall(way)' serving all the other rooms.
Yes, that's absolutely right! However, it does still make it rather sound as if you are getting an extra room for your money — especially since, where an open-plan kitchen is involved, sharp operators usually give the overall dimensions of the room as a whole, making you think you have a vast living room, when in fact you really need to deduct the kitchen area from the overall dimensions to see if your 3-piece suite will still fit!
What I found through research is that the "3 pièces" is a type of apartment classified as having 3 "pièces principales" which can be bedrooms, living rooms, or dining rooms. Kitchens and bathrooms do not count for or against the "3 pièces" so in this case I guess it doesn't matter?
Since you mention it... this description of 'cuisine américaine' is slightly awry! It (perhaps misleadingly) gives the impression that it is a separate room — but of course in that case, it wouldn't be 'open-plan', now would it?! More normal wording would be something like 'cuisine américaine ouverte sur séjour', thus removing the implication that this is 2 different rooms.
Hi everyone! Sorry I have been AWOL. Unfortunately for confidentiality reasons I can't answer a lot of your questions, but I will say that I highly doubt that there is any possibility that I can get in touch with the person who wrote this lease or has seen this property. It's several years old and there are no photos. It is from France.
I will flag it up to my client and they can ask the end client, though I doubt they will know either. But I can say I have done my due diligence! Thank you!
... but "cuisine américaine" is "open-plan kitchen" or "kitchen/diner", ie you can talk to your dinner guests while you're cooking.
Is it just me, or has this whole thing been written by someone whose first language is not French? Could it be a mistranslation?
ph-b (X)
France
Combles
13:21 Jun 3, 2017
I agree with other participants that comble used like this, esp. in the sing., looks odd. But it is possible to use the sing. according to TLFi. Anyway, when you try a search with entrée avec combles, you don't get that many more hits than Tony's greens, but it does say entrée avec combles aménagés ('converted loft'?), which might be a hint.
I also have a lot of experience translating such ads and seeing comble used like this is a bit baffling. It could be some sort of storage area but guessing isn't really an option. Ask the realtor or ask the client to ask the realtor.
I have to say this has quite got me stumped! In all my years of translating property descriptions, i've never come across this expression used this way. Can we ascertain first of all if this is a document from France, or maybe Canada (where there may be slightly different usages)? I suspect they might mean that the 'entrance hall' has a high ceiling that goes right up into the roof space; this could tie in with the notion of this mezzanine, if this were for example a top-floor flat? When it is the main living room that has a full-height ceiling, it is often described (rather grandiosely!) as 'cathédrale; however, to use that term for a humble 'entrée' really would be descending into the realms of the absurd! Which might be why they've struggled to invent this quirky term? Do you not have access to any photos of the property? Can you not find it on the advertiser's website... or just phone the estate agent?
I think your search is a little misleading, as you haven't used literals; hence you ahve lots of picturs of 'entrées' and lots of pictures of 'combles'. If you do a searching enclosing the whole term within quotes, you only get a few pictures of... vegetables!
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