# EN: le plus simple serait qu'il nous rejoigne à la gare



## babaz

Bonjour,

Comment traduiriez-vous cette phrase en anglais ?

"The easiest would be he "joins"/"joined"/"has joined" (?) us at the station" ?

Merci beaucoup


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## SwissPete

"The easiest would be for him to join us at the station".


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## babaz

Merci, mais cette formulation me paraît ambiguë :
Elle pourrait laisser entendre que ce serait le plus simple "pour sa propre convenance" ("pour lui"), alors que la phrase originale n'exprime pas cette information (il se pourrait que cela soit à la convenance de ceux qui l'émettent).


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## Michelvar

Prend exemple sur un Suisse pour une solution propre.... Tu sais pas conjuguer? Ben tu conjugues pas...

.. that he joins us....


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## babaz

Michelvar said:


> Prend exemple sur un Suisse pour une solution propre.... Tu sais pas conjuguer? Ben tu conjugues pas...
> 
> .. that he joins us....


Merci beaucoup !
(Heureusement, les compatriotes sont là... )


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## Michelvar

Heu... nan, mais elle est super la solution  de SwissPete, très élégante, perso je la recommande.


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## OLN

It would be most convenient that he should meet us at the station.
?


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## Marie So

I vote for: "It would be most convenient that he joined us at the station."

But does this form "most convenient + that" really exist? Isn't "it would be most convenient for sbd to do" the only possible one? 

Please grammarians come to the rescue!


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## Hildy1

If you mean most convenient in general:
The simplest thing would be for him to meet us at the station.
If you mean most convenient for him, the same words would be used in a different order:
The simplest thing for him would be to meet us at the station.


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## catay

Michelvar said:


> Prend exemple sur un Suisse pour une solution propre.... Tu sais pas conjuguer? Ben tu conjugues pas...
> 
> .. that he joins us....


For me, it feels more natural to say _".....that he* join *us at the station"_ which I believe is a rare example of the subjunctive mood in English.
Or following up on Hildy 1's suggestion, another possibility:
"The simplest thing would be that he meet us at the station" (If you don't need to insist on the "for him").


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## geostan

I would probably say:* It would be easiest if he met us at the station.*


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## Marie So

catay said:


> For me, it feels more natural to say _".....that he* join *us at the station"_ which I believe is a rare example of the subjunctive mood in English.



Yes, I see, thanks. Here is some revision about sujunctive, for those who would be interested in it.



geostan said:


> I would probably say:* It would be easiest if he met us at the station.*



And here, the simple past used in connection to the conditional form. 

A bit confusing, but logical after all.


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## geostan

_From S.M. - "And here, the simple past used in connection to the conditional form."_

Well, i would consider it a past subjunctive in the if clause of a conditional sentence. Difficult to see, unless you replaced *met* with *were to meet*.

Cheers!


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## Marie So

geostan said:


> _From S.M. - "And here, the simple past used in connection to the conditional form."_
> 
> Well, i would consider it a past subjunctive in the if clause of a conditional sentence. Difficult to see, unless you replaced *met* with *were to meet*.
> 
> Cheers!


 
Thanks Geostan.

And is there a reason why you will use the present subjonctive in the first case, and the past subjonctive in the second one? (Probably because that's just the way it is!)


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## geostan

Usually, when a subjunctive is called for, it is the present subjunctive. The main exception is the conditional sentence which has a specific sequence of tenses. Thus if the conditional is used in the main clause, the past subjunctive is used in the if clause. And with the past conditional in the main clause, the pluperfect subjunctive would be the usual form for the if clause. Examples: I would help him if I had the time. I would have helped him if I had had the time.

There are of course variations, but this is the usual sequence. I suspect, however, that we are getting somewhat off topic.


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## Marie So

Thanks for the explanations, I'll keep that in mind.



geostan said:


> I suspect, however, that we are getting somewhat off topic.



You're right, and I'll stop here.


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