# EN: sticking at those points tenaciously



## JojoKun

These sentences from charles dickens seem quite blurry to me and i can't understand their meaning:

"Foot passengers losing their foot-hold at streets-corners,where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke,adding new deposits to the crust upon the crust of mud,sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest" 
The subject of "sticking" and "accumulating" is "foot passengers" or "new deposits"?
Thank you so much for your help in advance


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## omahieu

Tough one...

I tend to believe that "foot passengers" is the subject. 

Waiting for other, hopefully more assertive, replies...


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## Outsider

I say it's the "new deposits" of mud.


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## JojoKun

thanks a lot omahieu 
 but then how do you understand the end of the sentence? I just can't see what the whole thing means...


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## omahieu

Je te rassure : ce n'est pas évident pour moi non plus. Maintenant que je relis (et traduis quelques mots), je dirais que ce sont plutôt les dépôts de boues qui s'ajoutent à la croûte de boue, s'y collent et s'y accumulent (en se mélangeant).


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## radagasty

JojoKun said:


> "Foot passengers losing their foot-hold at streets-corners,where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke,adding new deposits to the crust upon *the* crust of mud,sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest"
> The subject of "sticking" and "accumulating" is "foot passengers" or "new deposits"?


 
This, of course, is a description of a London November from the well-known opening to _Bleak House_. The subject cannot be 'foot passengers' as it does not make sense that they should 'accumulate at compound interest'. It must therefore be either 'new deposits' or 'the crust upon crust of mud'; both are possible, and it really does not matter which, as there is no difference in meaning, for, either way, it is the mud that is 'sticking' and 'accumulating'.


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## JojoKun

thank you soooo muchradagasty for your precious help
But i can't see what the expressions "sticking at those points" and "accumulating at compound interest" can mean concretlly. I just don't exactly see to what kind of movements it refers to.


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## radagasty

'Those points' refers to the street-corners, where the mud sticks and accumulates. 'At compound interest' is merely a metaphor here, suggesting that the more mud there is, the faster it accumulates. The basic idea is that the encrusted mud is getting thicker and thicker at the street-corners.


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## JojoKun

Thank you soooo much for you explanation radagasty. That just helped me a lot,you're great. But i can't see exactly the meaning of "at compound interest".


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## JojoKun

I can't understand the compound interest metaphor no matter how hard i try to focus on it... Would somebody please enlighten me?


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## Maître Capello

JojoKun said:


> I can't understand the compound interest metaphor no matter how hard i try to focus on it... Would somebody please enlighten me?


C'est une expression du monde bancaire (cf. compound interest) qui se traduit en français par _intérêt cumulé_…


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## james_san

The _new deposits_ (of mud) add to the crust upon crust of mud (already there). This starts the banking metaphor, because _deposit_ is the word used when you put money in the bank.
Next, the deposits are _sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement_. Which points of the pavement? I don't know. Probably the points where foot passengers have been _slipping and sliding since the day broke_.
Finally, the deposits of mud are _accumulating at _(like)_ compound interest_. Compound interest in a bank _accumulates_. Deposits (whether they are of money _or_ mud) accumulate. So it is a metaphor, but a difficult sentence to understand even to a native speaker that is not familiar with older language.


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## donques

Just slightly off the point Maître Capello, when Einstein was asked for a definition of genius he replied, "compound interest".


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## crossreference

It's a poorly constructed sentence.


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