grand chêne

English translation: mighty oak

10:26 Jul 23, 2009

French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Forestry / Wood / Timber

French term or phrase: grand chêne

Le grand chêne sera déraciné, emporté par le torrent et
la boue à travers les chemins.
This looks simple to translate. However, I had put "large oak". The client is querying that saying "great oak" and Termium simply has "oak for the entire phrase. Not sure of the difference between all of these.

Angel_7 KudoZ activity Questions: 306 (none open) (21 closed without grading) Answers: 129 United Kingdom
Local time: 15:57

English translation:mighty oak

Explanation:
could work here

Selected response from:

Colin Rowe
Germany
Local time: 16:57

Grading comment

I think it might be "great oak" as this sounds more poetic, although "great oak" is very English and this is a French oak tree so I do think "large oak tree" might also be OK
2 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

3 +8

mighty oak

Colin Rowe

massive oak tree

Katarina Peters

Answers

1 min confidence:

peer agreement (net): +8

mighty oak

Explanation:
could work here

Colin Rowe
Germany
Local time: 16:57
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

I think it might be "great oak" as this sounds more poetic, although "great oak" is very English and this is a French oak tree so I do think "large oak tree" might also be OK

Notes to answerer

Asker: The field is actually arts and crafts and goes on to talk about a sculptor but that perhaps wasn't evident from the first paragraph.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Tony M: Yes, or 'great', but certainly not 'large', which sounds quite odd (unless followed by 'oak tree'). Depends a bit, too, on the wider context...?

2 mins

-> Thanks, Tony!

agree

PennyBlack

7 mins

-> Thanks!

agree

Nora Mahony

21 mins

-> Thanks!

agree

Catherine Gilsenan: Poetic register.

1 hr

-> Thank you!

agree

Lianne Wilson

1 hr

-> Thanks!

agree

Christopher Crockett: As Catherine says, a phrase made famous by poetic usage, and more: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q="mighty oak"&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10...

2 hrs

-> Thank you!

agree

Miranda Joubioux (X): Depends on context; 'mighty' if poetic, 'great' if not.

2 hrs

-> Merci!

agree

George C.

4 hrs

-> Thanks!

agree

Helen Shiner: Agree with Miranda

5 hrs

-> Thanks! So do I!

disagree

David Vaughn: I can't get from grand, which quite neutrally means tall or big, to "mighty" which is far from neutral and quite colourful.

6 hrs

-> At the time I suggested "mighty", the specified field for this question was "Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting" - a "colourful" translation thus seemed justifiable. Only since has someone else changed the field to the less colourful "Forestry / Wood / Timber".

1 hr confidence:

massive oak tree

Explanation:
:)

Katarina Peters
Canada
Local time: 10:57
Native speaker of:

Hungarian,

English

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grand chêne

English translation: mighty oak

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English translation: mighty oak

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