# EN: In the afternoon we would play football



## itka

My english is not good enough to be sure... but it seems weird to me to translate :
_"In the afternoons we would play football'_ with an imperfect : _"Les après-midis nous jouions au foot"... _How would you then translate :_ "In the afternoons we played football" ?

_I would agree with Phydra and say :_
"In the afternoons __we would play football' ---> "L'après-midi, nous jouerions au foot"

_*Moderator note:* This question was split from this thread.


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## Cracker Jack

itka, in English, would is also employed in expressing something that occured habitually in the past, although it is not conditional. The use of jouions is correct.


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## geostan

itka said:


> My english is not good enough to be sure... but it seems weird to me to translate :
> _"In the afternoons we would play football'_ with an imperfect : _"Les après-midis nous jouions au foot"... _How would you then translate :_ "In the afternoons we played football" ?
> 
> _I would agree with Phydra and say :_
> "In the afternoons __we would play football' ---> "L'après-midi, nous jouerions au foot"_



When would = used to, the imperfect is used. 

Personally I don't like the use of the plural "afternoons." I would say simply "In the afternoon." The other is not incorrect; it is just something I would not say.

Cheers!


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## Blumengarten

geostan said:


> Personally I don't like the use of the plural "afternoons." I would say simply "In the afternoon." The other is not incorrect; it is just something I would not say.



 I think that "afternoons" is incorrect when used this way.  You could say, "Afternoons, we would play football," or "In the afternoon, we would football."  Those would be my preferences.


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## itka

Thank you Avignonais and geostan ! I never heard about this possibility before !
So, could I say :
_"On sundays, last summer, I would go to the beach." ?_
for : _"Le dimanche, l'été dernier, j'allais à la plage"

_What about "on" sundays ? Should I have only written "sundays" ?


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## geostan

itka said:


> Thank you Avignonais and geostan ! I never heard about this possibility before !
> So, could I say :
> _"On sundays, last summer, I would go to the beach." ?_
> for : _"Le dimanche, l'été dernier, j'allais à la plage"
> 
> _What about "on" sundays ? Should I have only written "sundays" ?



I think "On Sundays" sounds fine. But this is a day of the week, not the term "afternoon, morning, evening."


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## itka

geostan said:


> I think "On Sundays" sounds fine. But this is a day of the week, not the term "afternoon, morning, evening."



Merci !
Est-ce que je peux aussi utiliser cette construction pour les mois de l'année ? Les saisons ?
"In winters" ? Winters ?
"Januars ?"...
Comment traduire autrement : "tous les mois de janvier, je fais du ski" ?


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## Avignonais

In the winter I would go skiing. In the summer I would hike.


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## marget

itka said:


> Merci !
> Est-ce que je peux aussi utiliser cette construction pour les mois de l'année ? Les saisons ?
> "In winters" ? Winters ?
> "Januars ?"...
> Comment traduire autrement : "tous les mois de janvier, je fais du ski"?



Every January, I go skiing/In January, I go skiing.


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## itka

Merci à tous deux de me préciser ces possibilités de traduction.
Je me suis mal exprimée, je voudrais savoir s'il est _aussi_ possible de dire : 
winters...
in winters...
januaries...
in januaries...

comme on dit : 
mondays...
on mondays...

And, is my sentence correct :
_"On sundays, last summer, I *would go* to the beach." ?_
for : _"Le dimanche, l'été dernier, *j'allais* à la plage"

_Thanks !


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## Areyou Crazy

I have just come across this post...
so i may have to come back... but
On sundays I would go to the beach  YES
Last summer I would go the beach NO

That's my opinion..
would is used like 'In those days'Last summer is too recent... 
custom makes it incorrect

++ Ah I misread...
I think it sounds strange.
On sundays, last summer I would go to the beach is a little too precise
It would be better to say 
I went to the beach. 'would' here  is often used in a nostalgic sense, without precising when exactly an event happened


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## geostan

[…]

To answer the other points, _winters_ could only be used as a plural noun, not as an adverbial expression, e.g. _Winters in Canada can be very, very cold._

As someone interested in language, I hesitate to use the word "never," but the plural names of the months would be rarely, if ever, used.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!


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## Avignonais

I agree with geostan and AreYouCrazy. "Last summer on Sundays I *went* to  the beach" works. However, I would say, "When I was young, we *would go* to beach on Sundays". Or, "In those days we would go the beach on Sundays".

My two cents about "Winters". It can be used, but is very poetic. "Winters, we hid from the storms..."

Januaries, I haven't seen either


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## itka

Merci à vous tous pour ces exemples et ces précisions.
Ce _would_ me reste assez incompréhensible, mais j'ai compris qu'il se rapporte à un temps éloigné dans le passé. C'est une nouveauté pour moi !

[…]


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## emma42

Bonjour Itka.  Ce "would" est normale en anglais pour exprimer l'imparfait.  Un synonym est "used to".  

*In winter, when I was a child, we would make snowmen.
In winter, when I was a child, we used to make snowmen.
In winter, when I was a child, we made snowmen.
*


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