# FR: I prefer he kills me than my mother



## Ravenclaw

Je préfère qu'il me tue moi que ma mère.

Is this accurate ? I'm wondering why you have to repeat "moi" after a reflexive "me"...is this to make it sound more idiomatic?

Note: I've heard this in Paris during a "tipsy" conversation


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## Uncle Bob

In English, when you say "I prefer he kills me" you can insist heavily on the "me". Adding the "moi" does that in French.


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## Pure_Yvesil

Correct,

But it doesn't explain why you cannot say: "je préfère qu'il me tue que ma mère"


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## Uncle Bob

True, but then I don't like the English much either ("prefer...than") and would use "rather than"! Have I passed my best-before date?


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## doinel

Why does ' I prefer he kills me than my mother?' sound so strange to me? There's something wrong with killS.
Ce qui est étrange  en français mais pas impossible c'est effectivement de ne pas mettre moi.
On pourrait penser que cela veut dire je préfère que ce soit lui qui me tue plutôt que ce soit ma mère ( qui le fasse).


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## Uncle Bob

doinel said:


> Why does ' I prefer he kills me than my mother?' sound so strange to me? There's something wrong with killS.
> Ce qui est étrange  en français mais pas impossible c'est effectivement de ne pas mettre moi.
> On pourrait penser que cela veut dire je préfère que ce soit lui qui me tue plutôt que ce soit ma mère ( qui le fasse).


But then it would be, I think, "... qu'il me tue lui..." though, as you write, without the "moi"/"lui" it is ambiguous (even if it had a "plutôt que").
The English phrase is also ambiguous (the spoken stress would sort it out) and yes, you're right about "kills". I zoomed in on the "prefer...than" and missed "prefer that he kills"/"prefer him to kill", sorry!


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## Charlie Parker

Other anglophones might not agree with me, but I think this is one of the few places where the subjunctive sounds better: "I prefer that he kill me instead of my mother."


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## doinel

Merci Charlie et Uncle Bob
J'avais l'impression que le S était de trop.


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## LanguageNerd123

Charlie Parker said:


> Other anglophones might not agree with me, but I think this is one of the few places where the subjunctive sounds better: "I prefer that he kill me instead of my mother."



I would say different as I think if you were to say "I prefer that he kill me" I think it would be necessary to use the conditional and say "I prefer that he'd kill me instead of my mother" yet on the other hand, I would expect to hear "I prefer that he kill me" in somewhere with an accent of a higher class, whereas in normal speech through the country I think "I prefer that he kills me instead of my mother" would be heard usually.


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## Charlie Parker

It is true that the subjunctive has been losing ground steadily in English for a long time now. Perhaps it is just because I've studied other languages where the subjunctive is very much alive, but the indicative just grates on my ears.


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## broglet

I agree with you 100% Charlie - "I prefer he kill me .. " (preferably without the implied 'that') sounds perfectly natural to me. Use of the indicative reeks of inadequate education - sadly it's the sort of solecism you hear all the time even on the BBC these days. I don't think it has anything to do with 'class'.  You hear working class people speaking perfectly good English and supposedly 'higher class' people making just this kind of gaffe.


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## Itisi

I would rather he kill me than kill my mother


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## Oddmania

Itisi said:


> I would rather he kill me than kill my mother



Hi,

Aren't we supposed to use the past simple with the phrase _would rather_ ? 

_I'd rather he kill*ed *me_ (_I'd rather he *did*n't, I'd rather he *went*_, etc...)


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## Itisi

Oddmania said:


> Aren't we supposed to use the past simple with the phrase _would rather_ ?


You are quite right: I would rather he killed me than kill my mother (I hope that's right now - I mean the second 'kill'!)


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## Uncle Bob

Minor point (?) the original question concerned the French. My original comment on the English (#4) was only an aside and now the OP is having his/her question rewritten!


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## Itisi

Uncle Bob said:


> Minor point (?) the original question concerned the French. My original comment on the English (#4) was only an aside and now the OP is having his/her question rewritten!


 Oh dear!  (a Funny Thing Happened on the Way through the Forum!)


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## Nicomon

Back to French 

Although the original is in the present tense, I'd use the conditional : 

_J'aimerais mieux qu'il me tue, au lieu de /plutôt que tuer ma mère_.  Here repeating the ver rather than the pronoun.
or
_J'aimerais mieux qu'il me tue, moi, plutôt que ma mère. _I don't imagine the sentence without _« plutôt ». 

_Other approach, more of an adapt than translation : _
S'il doit tuer quelqu'un... autant que ce soit moi que ma mère / je préfère que ce soit moi, plutôt que ma mère._


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## pointvirgule

Ravenclaw said:


> Je préfère qu'il me tue moi que ma mère.
> [...] I'm wondering why you have to repeat "moi" after a reflexive "me"...is this to make it sound more idiomatic?


To rephrase in more explicit terms what doinel said – if you take _moi _away, you get:
_Je préfère qu'il me tue _[_plutôt_]_ que ma mère._

Which can be interpreted in two different ways:
1. I would rather be killed by him than by my mother. (!)
2. If he kills someone, I prefer that it be me rather than my mother. 

Putting emphasis on the direct object by repeating it (_qu'il me tue, moi_) makes it clear that the sentence is about who gets killed rather than who does the killing. Hope this helps.


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## broglet

Uncle Bob said:


> Minor point (?) the original question concerned the French. My original comment on the English (#4) was only an aside and now the OP is having his/her question rewritten!


Indeed so, but I'm sure it was well-intentioned. If we don't rewrite it then, before translating to French, it's important to know whether we are looking for solecistic French to match the original, or correct French.


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## Pure_Yvesil

So in other words the options are:

A) Je préfère qu'il *me* tue *moi* que ma mère
B) Je préfère qu'il *me *tue moi *plutôt *que ma mère
C) J"_'aimerais mieux qu'il me tue, moi, plutôt que ma mère
D) __J'aimerais mieux qu'il me tue, moi, plutôt que ma mère


_Do we agree ? I have a slight preference for the first one because it's what I've actually "heard" here in Brussels.


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## Lacuzon

Bonjour,

Quant à moi, les versions avec plutôt me semblent plus naturelles.


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## janpol

Je préfère(rais) que ce soit moi qu'il tue plutôt que ma mère


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## Nicomon

janpol said:


> Je préfère(rais) que ce soit moi qu'il tue plutôt que ma mère


   La meilleure solution, à mon avis.  Et du coup, je m'en veux de ne pas y avoir pensé.  Comme je l'ai écrit plus haut, je le mettrais au conditionnel.


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## Itisi

Ah, plutôt qu'il me tue, au lieu qu'il tue ma mère - ça fait un alexandrin !  (s'il y a un pied de trop, on peut enlever le 'Ah' !)


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## Nicomon

Nicomon said:


> _J'aimerais mieux qu'il me tue, au lieu de /plutôt que tuer ma mère_. Here repeating the verb rather than the pronoun.


 Désolée de me citer... Il est trop tard pour éditer mon post, et je viens de réaliser que cette phrase est bancale. Qui va tuer la mère? Le fils, ou « il »? 

J'aurais dû écrire : _au lieu qu'il tue / plutôt qu'il tue. _


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