# sentir le vide



## dafunkyguy

Bonjour,

Quelle est la définition pour "sentir le vide" en anglais?

Merci beaucoup!


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## bloomiegirl

What's the context, please?


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## dafunkyguy

<<Je savais aussi que j'aurais probablement à m'habituer à l'appartement qui ne sentait ni les épices des délicieux mets de mon père ni le nettoyeur à vitres de ma mère. Cet appartement *sentait le vide*!>>


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## Kelly B

_Le vide_ means the void, empty space. It's probably adequate to say "it smelled empty," but I think the French is a little stronger than that.


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## bloomiegirl

dafunkyguy said:


> <<Je savais aussi que j'aurais probablement à m'habituer à l'appartement qui ne sentait ni les épices des délicieux mets de mon père ni le nettoyeur à vitres de ma mère. Cet appartement *sentait le vide*!>>



In this case, "sentir le vide" may connote the physical (smell) as well as the figurative (sense of emptiness)... Is that how this is heard by the French ear?

Even if that is the case, I'm not sure what the emptiness would be - moral emptiness, due to lack of cleanliness? familial emptiness, due to lack of family?


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## dafunkyguy

Merci beaucoup!!! Thank you so much!


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## Cath.S.

I don't know if saying that _it smelled of absence_ would be going too far.


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## dafunkyguy

Est-ce que tu peux dire <<une creuse sensation>> pour la définition pour <<sentir le vide>>?


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## Cath.S.

dafunkyguy said:


> Est-ce que tu peux dire <<une creuse sensation>> pour la définition pour <<sentir le vide>>?


_Sentir _is not (well, not mainly) about a vague sensation in your text, it is about actual smelling.


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## bloomiegirl

egueule said:


> I don't know if saying that _it smelled of absence_ would be going too far.



I really like that!



dafunkyguy said:


> Est-ce que tu peux dire <<une creuse sensation>> pour la définition pour <<sentir le vide>>?



Now I'm confused; I thought you wanted to render it in English.


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## dafunkyguy

Oh...because I have to write a definition in French for it...without using any of the words in the expression...what should I write then? Je ne sais pas...je suis tres confusé...


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## bloomiegirl

Or maybe (inspired by egueule): It smelled of emptiness. 

Or is this pushing it too far? (Question for fellow Anglophones)


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## Cath.S.

Cet appartement n'avait plus l'odeur d'un lieu habité.


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## bloomiegirl

dafunkyguy said:


> Je suis desolé...c'est trés urgent...



Prenez courage; vous pouvez le faire.

Cf. le dernier message de egueule (moins le petit typo: Cet appartement...)


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## dafunkyguy

bloomiegirl said:


> Prenez courage; vous pouvez le faire.
> 
> Cf. le dernier message de egueule (moins le petit typo: Cet appartement...)



Merci beaucoup...j'essaie travailler l'expression maintenant...c'est très difficile...


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## Cath.S.

bloomiegirl said:


> Prenez courage; vous pouvez le faire.
> 
> Cf. le dernier message de egueule (moins le petit typo *la petite coquille*: Cet appartement...)


Je te remercie, et j'ai maintenant corrigé cette coquille certainement due à l'envahissante présence de félins dans mon propre appartement.


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## bloomiegirl

egueule said:


> Cet appartement n'avait plus l'odeur d'un lieu habité.



Voilà!


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## dafunkyguy

Merci beaucoup!


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## pooxyyy

peut on dire: It felt emptiness ??


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## bloomiegirl

pooxyyy said:


> peut on dire: It felt emptiness ??



I see you're back to English. No, that won't work, at least not in prose, not here. Apartments don't feel anything at all in English. In this case, the apartment may evoke the narrator's feelings of emptiness, loneliness, etc.


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## espionage

non. on dirait "it felt empty"
'emptiness' est un nom, 'empty' est l'adjectif.

EDIT: bloomiegirl, i disagree. an apartment could 'feel' something in english.
it could feel empty, for a start, anyway. but i guess thats geting off topic a little.


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## Cath.S.

espionage said:


> non. on dirait "it felt empty"
> 'emptiness' est un nom, 'empty' est l'adjectif.


Oui, on dirait ça, mais pas pour traduire _il sentait le vide._
Je l'ai déjà dit plus haut mais, n'ayant pas peur de me répéter,  _sentir _dans le texte que nous traduisons ici fait clairement référence aux _odeurs_ (_smells_) de cuisine et de produit nettoyant.


> l'appartement qui ne *sentait* ni les* épices* des délicieux mets de mon père ni le *nettoyeur à vitres* de ma mère. Cet appartement *sentait le vide*


_It felt empty = il donnait une impression de vide._


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## espionage

oui, mais je corrigait seulement le grammaire dans l'expression de pooxyyy...
et je vous en prie de m'excuser.


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## Cath.S.

espionage said:


> oui, mais je corrig*eais* seulement l*a* grammaire dans l'expression de pooxyyy...
> et je vous en prie de m'excuser.


Si tu plaisantes, tant mieux,  si tu ne plaisantes pas, tant pis,  toujours est-il que je ne te reprochais rien, je ne faisais qu'apporter une précision. 




Je ne sais pas si ça vous arrive aussi, les journées maudites ? Je suppose que oui...


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## pooxyyy

bloomiegirl said:


> I see you're back to English. No, that won't work, at least not in prose, not here. Apartments don't feel anything at all in English. In this case, the apartment may evoke the narrator's feelings of emptiness, loneliness, etc.


^^ i didn't refered to the appartment when i said "it", that's what i meant: 
it felt emptiness/empty in this apartment wich means in french : on/ça sentait le vide dans cet appartement ( corrigez si je me trompe svp)
i think it's not the only or THE right translation but i just say that's possible to say it in that way because it has almost the same meaning


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## bloomiegirl

I'm sorry, please forget the last part of my last reply...

One could say _"It felt empty,"_ but unfortunately it doesn't convey the smell/feel conjunction of "sentir."


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## dafunkyguy

bloomiegirl said:


> I see you're back to English. No, that won't work, at least not in prose, not here. Apartments don't feel anything at all in English. In this case, the apartment may evoke the narrator's feelings of emptiness, loneliness, etc.



I don't know...but I sense it's something like personification (in English terms) but I'll just still with "to feel empty" I guess...je ne sais pas...


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## dafunkyguy

Cette histoire...j'ai obtenu la texte d'un livre Quebeçois...


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## Cath.S.

dafunkyguy said:


> I don't know...but I sense it's something like personification (in English terms) but I'll just still with "to feel empty" I guess...je ne sais pas...


Listen (or don't ), any French native will tell you this is about the actual smell -or rather lack therof - of the flat.


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## bloomiegirl

egueule said:


> Listen (or don't ), any French native will tell you this is about the actual smell -or rather lack therof - of the flat.



Does this bring us back to "It smelled of emptiness" or perhaps merely "It smelled empty"?


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## Cath.S.

bloomiegirl said:


> Does this bring us back to "It smelled of emptiness" or perhaps merely "It smelled empty"?


'Fraid so.


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## dafunkyguy

All right...I see...all right...thanks!


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## Nicomon

Just a thought. Not sure at all whether or not it could work, but what about...  _The apartment_ _was void of scent _


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## espionage

No, It seems like it's more about the scent that *was *there, the smell of emptiness, not an actual lack of scent.


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## Nicomon

I understood the Frech meaning. _Void of scent_ (inverting the French words, and using "scent" instead of "smell") was my weak attempt to render the "double entendre" of _sentir le vide_, since you can also *feel *a void. 

I realise it doesn't work, so I guess we're back to _smelled of emptiness _or _smelled empty_ but still_..._ it's missing something.


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## Padraig

There is a difference between "smelled of emptiness" and "smelled empty", the former having a tone much closer to the pathos I read in the original. I think it is an adequate translation, and captures the tone reasonably well.

It could be intensified a little by saying that it "had the smell of emptiness", bit that might make translating the preceding passage more difficult.


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## Nicomon

Padraig said:


> It could be intensified a little by saying that it "*had the smell of emptiness*", bit that might make translating the preceding passage more difficult.


 
This one gets my vote.


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