# EN: le moins souvent possible



## Seeda

Hi all, quick question.

I wish to say:

Pour améliorer mon anglais, j'essaie de parler français le moins souvent possible.

I thought of:

To improve my English, I try and speak French as less (often) as possible.

Does that sound correct and natural to you?


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## harrythelm

I would say: I try to speak French as little as possible ("less as possible" ne passe pas)


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## Seeda

Thanks harrythelm. It was quick


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## SwissPete

Another possibility: I try to speak French as seldom as possible.


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## shadyRAT

Or, I try to speak French as rarely as possible.


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## Nicomon

Hello,

I think _seldom/rarely_ are closer to the original « _le moins souvent possible _».

I have a slight preference for_ rarely_, but I don't know why. 

_As little as possible = le moins possible_.


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## jonnyricho

In english it is more natural to say: In order to improve my english, i try to speak french less often/as little as possible.


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## Nicomon

jonnyricho said:


> In english it is more natural to say: In order to improve my english, i try to speak french less often/as little as possible.


 I agree. But that would be in French « _Pour améliorer mon anglais, j'essaie de parler français moins souvent / le moins possible »_.   

However in my mind, and right or wrong « _le moins souvent possible_ », which was the initial question = _as rarely/seldom as possible. _


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## jonnyricho

If i was conjugating this sentence i would say _Pour améliorer mon anglais, j'essaie de parler français _"aussi rarement que possible."  however i am unsure if this is possible in french. The use of "le moins possible" to me, makes it sound like the person in question is saying "In order to improve my english, i try not to speak french at all."


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## Nicomon

Yes, you could say in French :_ aussi rarement que possible_ which (to me) is a close synonym of _le moins souvent possible_.  It just doesn't come as naturally.
However _not at all_ would be in French : _j'essaie de ne jamais parler français / de ne pas parler français du tout. _

_As little as possible = aussi peu que possible = le moins possible. _ 

Don't get me wrong.  I do agree that it's the natural thing to say... but this is opposite to _as much as possible = autant que possible = le plus possible._
 I keep thinking that _souvent_ (i.e. in terms of occasions to speak the language) is missing. 

_Moins souvent = less often _and a litteral translation of_ *le* moins souvent _would be:_ the least often.  
_But I doubt very much that we could say: _as least often as possible.  _Could we?  Hence... _as rarely/seldom as possible. _


> _ Il travaille  *le moins possible* → He works *as little as possible
> *J'utilise ma carte de crédit *aussi peu que possible. *I use my credit  card *as little as possible.* _


  I would rather say, in a more positive way :  _In order to improve my English, I try to speak it as much/as often as possible._.. and leave French out of the sentence. 
But that's only a personal opinion. 

I'm off to another thread.


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## Tazzler

Nicomon said:


> _Moins souvent = less often _and a litteral translation of_ *le* moins souvent _would be:_ the least often.
> _But I doubt very much that we could say: _as least often as possible.  _Could we?  Hence... _as rarely/seldom as possible. _  I would rather say, in a more positive way :  _In order to improve my English, I try to speak it as much/as often as possible._.. and leave French out of the sentence.
> But that's only a personal opinion.
> 
> I'm off to another thread.



Actually I was going to suggest "as least often as possible." It doesn't sound bad to my ears. But then again in writing I might choose "as seldom as possible" as suggested above because it's shorter and means the same thing.


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## jann

Tazzler said:


> Actually I was going to suggest "as least often as possible." It doesn't sound bad to my ears.


It doesn't sound bad to your ears?!?!    I'm sorry, but it sounds horrible to mine!

_Least_ is a superlative... so we can have _the least_ but never _as least as.   _The superlative, by virtue of being the extreme endmember of a group, admits no comparison... but "as...as" implies comparison.  I'm afraid that _as least often as possible_ is grammatically impossible.


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## Tazzler

jann said:


> It doesn't sound bad to your ears?!?!    I'm sorry, but it sounds horrible to mine!
> 
> _Least_ is a superlative... so we can have _the least_ but never _as least as.   _The superlative, by virtue of being the extreme endmember of a group, admits no comparison... but "as...as" implies comparison.  I'm afraid that _as least often as possible_ is grammatically impossible.



Maybe...If I wrote it down and were reviewing my writing it'd probably attract my attention. But it might come out of my mouth in spontaneous speech.

My vote goes to "as seldom as possible."


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